Method and system for managing vendor and model information in a multi-protocol remote monitoring system

ABSTRACT

A method, system, and computer program product for managing information used by a plurality of communication protocols to extract status information related to a monitored device among distinct devices communicatively coupled to a network. The method includes selecting a communication protocol among the plurality of communication protocols; retrieving, from a first memory, information for accessing the device using the selected communication protocol; and accessing the device using the selected communication protocol and the information retrieved from the first memory. In addition, a vendor-model support map, a protocol parameter map, and a status information map are maintained to allow for the efficient extraction of status information from monitored network devices using the plurality of communication protocols.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to the following commonly owned co-pendingU.S. patent applications:

-   -   1. Ser. No. 09/453,937 entitled “Method and System of Remote        Diagnostic, Control, and Information Collection using a Dynamic        Linked Library of Multiple Formats and Multiple Protocols with        Intelligent Formatter,” filed May 17, 2000;    -   2. Ser. No. 09/756,120 entitled “Method and System of Remote        Support of Device Using Email,” filed Jan. 9, 2001;    -   3. Ser. No. 09/782,064 entitled “Method and System of Remote        Diagnostic, Control, and Information Collection using a Dynamic        Linked Library of Multiple Formats and Multiple Protocols with        Three-Level Formatting,” filed Feb. 14, 2001;    -   4. Ser. No. 09/921,707 entitled “Universal Controller in The        Wireless Networked Environment,” filed Aug. 6, 2001;    -   5. Ser. No. 09/953,358 entitled “Method and System of Remote        Support of Device Using Email Through Data Transfer Module,”        filed Sep. 17, 2001;    -   6. Ser. No. 09/953,359 entitled “Method and System for Remote        Support of Device using Email for Sending Information Related to        a Monitored Device,” filed Sep. 17, 2001;    -   7. Ser. No. 09/975,935 entitled “Method and System for Remote        Support of Device Using Email Based Upon Pop3 With Decryption        Capability Through Virtual Function,” filed Oct. 15, 2001;    -   8. Ser. No. 10/068,861 entitled “Method and Apparatus Utilizing        Communication Means Hierarchy to Configure or Monitor an        Interface Device,” filed Feb. 11, 2002;    -   9. Ser. No. 10/142,989 entitled “Verification Scheme for Email        Message Containing Information About Remotely Monitored        Devices,” filed May 13, 2002;    -   10. Ser. No. 10/142,992 entitled “Method for Scrambling        Information about Network Devices That is Placed in Email        Message,” filed May 13, 2002;    -   11. Ser. No. 10/157,903 entitled “Method and Apparatus for        Modifying Remote Devices Monitored by a Monitoring System,”        filed May 31, 2002;    -   12. Ser. No. 10/162,402 entitled “Method and System to Use HTTP        and Html/Xml for Monitoring the Devices,” filed Jun. 5, 2002;    -   13. Ser. No. 10/167,497 entitled “Method and System of Remote        Position Reporting Device,” filed Jun. 13, 2002, which is a        continuation of Ser. No. 09/575,702 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,421,608);    -   14. Ser. No. 10/225,290 entitled “Method and System for        Monitoring Network Connected Devices with Multiple Protocols,”        filed Aug. 22, 2002;    -   15. Ser. No. 10/328,003 entitled “Method of Accessing        Information from Database to be used to Obtain Status        Information from the Web Pages of Remotely Monitored Devices,”        filed Dec. 26, 2002;    -   16. Ser. No. 10/328,008 entitled “Method of using Internal        Structure to Store Database Information for Multiple Vendor and        Model Support for Remotely Monitored Devices,” filed Dec. 26,        2002;    -   17. Ser. No. 10/328,026 entitled “Method of using Vectors of        Structures for Extracting Information from the Web Pages of        Remotely Monitored Devices,” filed Dec. 26, 2002;    -   18. Ser. No. 10/372,939 entitled “Method and System for        Monitoring Network Connected Devices with Multiple Protocols,”        filed Feb. 26, 2003;    -   19. Ser. No. 10/460,150 entitled “Method for Efficiently Storing        Information used to Extract Status Information from a Device        Coupled to a Network in a Multi-Protocol Remote Monitoring        System,” filed Jun. 13, 2003;    -   20. Ser. No. 10/460,151 entitled “Method for Efficiently        Extracting Status Information Related to a Device Coupled to a        Network in a Multi-Protocol Remote Monitoring System,” filed        Jun. 13, 2003;    -   21. Ser. No. 10/460,404 entitled “Method for Parsing an        Information String to Extract Requested Information Related to a        Device Coupled to a Network in a Multi-Protocol Remote        Monitoring System,” filed Jun. 13, 2003;    -   22. Ser. No. 10/460,408 entitled “Method and System for        Extracting Vendor and Model Information in a Multi-Protocol        Remote Monitoring System,” filed Jun. 13, 2003;    -   23. Ser. No. 10/670,505 entitled “Method and System for        Extracting Information from Networked Devices in a        Multi-Protocol Remote Monitoring System,” filed Sep. 26, 2003;        and    -   24. Ser. No. 10/670,604 entitled “Method and System for        Supporting Multiple Protocols Used to Monitor Networked Devices        in a Remote Monitoring System,” filed Sep. 26, 2003.        The disclosures of each of the above U.S. patents and patent        applications are incorporated herein by reference in their        entirety.

The present invention includes the use of various technologiesreferenced and described in the references identified in the followingLIST OF REFERENCES by the author(s) and year of publication of thereference:

LIST OF REFERENCES

-   -   [1] Goldfart, C., The SGML Handbook. Clarendon Press (1990);    -   [2] Castro, E., HTML for the World Wide Web, Peachpit Press,        Berkeley (1996); and    -   [3] Megginson, D., Structuring XML Documents, Prentice Hall, NJ        (1998).        The entire contents of each reference listed in the LIST OF        REFERENCES are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the monitoring of devices connected to anetwork. More particularly, it relates to a method, system, and computerprogram product for the remote monitoring of network-connected devicesusing multiple protocols.

2. Discussion of the Background

As is generally known, computer systems include hardware and software.Software includes a list of instructions that are created to operate andmanage hardware components that make up a computer system. Typically,computer systems include a variety of hardware components/devices thatinterface with one another. The computer system can be a stand-alonetype or a networked type. In a networked-type computer system, aplurality of distinct devices are connected to a network and thuscommunication between these distinct devices is enabled via the network.

Further, software for operating the hardware devices must be configuredin order to allow communication between the hardware devices so that thehardware devices are enabled to function cooperatively. Further, inorder to facilitate such a communication, it is also desirable forhardware devices to be monitored and the status of each hardware deviceidentified in order to ensure that each hardware device is functioningin an efficient manner.

For the purposes of this patent application, the inventor has determinedthat a hardware device that is controlling, configuring, or monitoringthe plurality of distinct devices or hardware devices would be referredto as a monitoring device and the hardware devices that are beingcontrolled, configured, or monitored by the monitoring device would bereferred to as “monitored devices.”

For hardware devices that are located on a network, it is desirable forthese devices to be monitored for maintenance, usage, or other purposes.However, in view of manufacturer differences relating to hardwaredevices and interfaces, it may be difficult for a monitoring device tocommunicate with various other devices connected to a network. Such adisadvantage most likely prevents network administrators from obtainingcrucial information about the performance and efficiency of the devicesconnected to the network.

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is today a de-factoindustry standard for the monitoring and management of devices on datacommunication networks, telecommunication systems and other globallyreachable devices. Practically every organization dealing with computersand related devices expects to be able to centrally monitor, diagnose,and configure each such device across local- and wide-area networks.SNMP is the protocol that enables this interaction.

In order for a device to respond to SNMP requests, it is desirable toequip the device with the software that enables it to properly interpretan SNMP request, perform the actions required by that request, andproduce an SNMP reply. The SNMP agent software is typically a subsystemsoftware module residing in a network entity.

The collection of objects implemented by a system is generally referredto as a Management Information Base (MIB). An MIB may also be a databasewith information related to the monitoring of devices. Examples of otherMIB's include Ethernet MIB, which focuses on Ethernet interfaces; BridgeMIB, which defines objects for the management of 802.1D bridges, to namea few.

Using SNMP for monitoring devices is difficult as private MIB's includevalues that are hard to decipher without a valid key. A company usingSNMP for monitoring various devices connected to its network creates aunique identifier/key that is maintained as proprietary information ofthe company. For the most part, the results are displayed as binary orinteger values. Thus, using SNMP, results received from the devices thatare being monitored (“monitored devices”) fail to provide a user withthe status of the monitored devices in a user comprehensible manner.

Further, using SNMP, it is difficult for one to obtain detailedinformation about a monitored device without a valid key or access to aprivate MIB to decipher the results obtained as binary or integervalues. In addition, a given protocol (e.g., SNMP or HTTP/HTML) may failfor various reasons, such as time out or lost packets. Also, someinformation extracted from a given device using the multiple protocolsmay be duplicated for each protocol. Accordingly, if the extraction ofdata from the device is not properly managed in such situations, timeand memory inefficiencies result since some protocols require moreresources than other protocols. In addition, information extractionusing some protocols may require much less processing and memory thanusing others. Furthermore, some information obtained through oneprotocol may be more useful for the monitoring device than the oneobtained through another protocol.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The system and method of the present invention addresses solutions tothe above-identified problems by enabling monitoring of devices that areconnected to a network. Accordingly, a method of monitoring a deviceamong distinct devices communicatively coupled to a network isdescribed.

The method includes accessing a first database via a hardware accessmodule, the first database being configured to support a plurality ofcommunication protocols. The first database is stored with informationused by the plurality of communication protocols in order to obtainvarious information, such as manufacturer and model information of amonitored device. A communication protocol is selected from among aplurality of communication protocols, and the selected communicationprotocol is configured to receive status information from the monitoreddevice. The method further includes accessing the monitored device usingthe selected communication protocol and information from the firstdatabase, receiving status information from the accessed device, andstoring the received status information in a second database(DeviceODBC).

In another embodiment, the present invention provides a method ofmonitoring a device among distinct devices communicatively coupled to anetwork. A plurality of communication protocols may be used to retrieveinformation from a monitored device. For example, an SNMP protocol isfirst selected to access a monitored device, and device information thatis configured to be efficiently retrieved using the SNMP protocol isobtained. Subsequently, HTTP and FTP protocols are selected to obtaininformation that was incapable of efficient retrieval using the SNMPprotocol if the device supports the additional protocols. The selectionof protocols is performed by a protocol manager in conjunction withsupport information stored in a database.

In the present invention, a monitoring system enables the monitoring ofat least one device (monitored device) connected to a network, such as,for example, a LAN or a WAN. The monitored device is configured to havea unique IP address. The IP address allocated to the monitored device,and the details of the vendor/manufacturer for the monitored device, arestored in a database. By scanning the network and interrogating thedevices the IP addresses of the devices can be obtained. Such methodsare known. Therefore, it is assumed that IP addresses of the devices tobe monitored are already acquired and stored in a database.

The present invention specifies how to extract necessary informationfrom the HTML information received from a monitored device. Once a webpage location of the monitored device is accessed (i.e., through the IPaddress and the specified port), a specific web page corresponding tothe monitored device is displayed. Information in the web page is in theform of key and value pairs. For example, the toner level may be shownas “Black 100%” in the color printer web page. An HTML/XML parser isused to parse the page in order to retrieve required information fromthe information in the web page. The required information and parametervalues extracted from the web page using the HTML/XML parser are storedin the DeviceODBC database.

The present invention also identifies various vendors of monitoreddevices and the device models that are supported by the monitoringsystem as described herein. Since various vendors of the monitoreddevices present information about a monitored device in avendor-specific manner, the present invention enables the identificationof the vendor and model of the monitored device to determine theoperational status of the monitored device.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided amethod, system, and computer program product of initializing a pluralityof protocol objects associated with respective communication protocolsused to extract status information related to a monitored devicecommunicatively coupled to a network, comprising: (1) selecting acommunication protocol among the respective communication protocols; (2)retrieving, from a first memory, information for accessing the deviceusing the selected communication protocol; (3) accessing the deviceusing the selected communication protocol and the information retrievedfrom the first memory to attempt to obtain vendor information related tothe device; (4) determining whether the vendor information was obtainedfrom the device; (5) if the vendor information was obtained from thedevice, obtaining, from a second memory, support information forextracting the status information using each of the respectivecommunication protocols, and storing the vendor information and therespective support information in each protocol object of the pluralityof protocol objects; and (6) if the vendor information was not obtainedfrom the device, repeating the preceding steps until the vendorinformation is obtained or until each communication protocol of therespective communication protocols has been selected.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda method, system, and computer program product for determining whichtypes of status information to extract from a monitored devicecommunicatively coupled to a network, comprising: (1) selecting acommunication protocol among a plurality of communication protocols usedto extract status information from the device; (2) retrieving, from afirst memory, a protocol object associated with the selectedcommunication protocol, wherein the protocol object includes at least atype of status information, a weight of the status information, andinformation for extracting the type of status information from thedevice using the selected communication protocol; (3) determining if thetype of status information is present in a second memory, wherein thesecond memory comprises status information previously extracted from thedevice; (4) if the determining step determines that the type of statusinformation is present in the second memory, checking whether the weightof the status information stored in the protocol object is greater thana corresponding weight associated with the status information of thesame type stored in the second memory; (5) if (a) the determining stepdetermines that the type of status information is not present in thesecond memory, or (b) if the determining step determines that the typeof status information is present in the second memory, but the checkingstep determines that the weight of the status information is greaterthan the corresponding weight associated with the status information ofthe same type stored in the second memory, accessing the device usingthe selected communication protocol and the information for extractingthe device contained in the protocol object to obtain the statusinformation.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method, system, and computer program product for managinginformation related to at least one monitored device communicativelycoupled to a network, comprising: (1) selecting a communication protocolamong a plurality of communication protocols used to extract statusinformation from the at least one monitored device; (2) retrieving, froma first memory, a protocol object associated with the selectedcommunication protocol, wherein the protocol object includes vendor andmodel information of the at least one monitored device; (3) obtaining,from the protocol object, a vendor name of a monitored device of the atleast one monitored device supported by the selected communicationprotocol; (4) obtaining, from the protocol object, a model namecorresponding to the obtained vendor name; (5) creating a descriptivestring using the obtained vendor name and the obtained model name; (6)determining if the descriptive string is present in a second memory; and(7) if the determining step determines that the descriptive string isnot present in the second memory, storing the descriptive string in thesecond memory in association with the protocol object.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method, system, and computer program product for managinginformation necessary to extract status information from a monitoreddevice communicatively coupled to a network, comprising: (1) selecting acommunication protocol among a plurality of communication protocols usedto extract the status information from the monitored device; (2)retrieving a descriptive string from a first memory, the descriptivestring including a vendor name and a corresponding model name supportedby the selected communication protocol; (3) extracting the vendor nameand the corresponding model name from the descriptive string; (4)determining if the extracted vendor name and the extracted model namematch a vendor name and a model name, respectively, of the monitoreddevice; and (5) if the determining step determines that the extractedvendor name and the extracted model name match the vendor name and themodel name, respectively, of the monitored device, accessing the deviceto obtain the status information using the selected communicationprotocol.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a method, system, and computer program product for determiningwhich, if any, communication protocols can be used to extract statusinformation related to a network device, comprising: (1) selecting acommunication protocol among a plurality of communication protocols; (2)obtaining, from a device object associated with the network device,information for accessing the network device using the selectedcommunication protocol; (3) determining if the network device can beaccessed using the selected communication protocol and the informationfor accessing the network device obtained from the device object; (4) ifthe determining step determines that the network device can not beaccessed using the selected communication protocol, removing, from thedevice object, the information for accessing the network device usingthe selected communication protocol; and (5) if the determining stepdetermines that the network device can be accessed using the selectedcommunication protocol, performing further tests to determine whetherthe selected communication protocol can be used to extract the statusinformation from the network device.

Further, the step of performing further tests comprises: (1) determiningwhether a vendor of the network device can be obtained from the networkdevice using the selected communication protocol; (2) if the precedingdetermining step determines that the vendor can not be obtained usingthe selected communication protocol, checking whether the selectedcommunication protocol supports a generic vendor, and if the selectedcommunication protocol does not support the generic vendor, removing,from the device object, the information for accessing the network deviceusing the selected communication protocol; (3) if the precedingdetermining step determines that the vendor can be obtained using theselected communication protocol, obtaining the vendor from the networkdevice and determining whether the obtained vendor is supported by theselected communication protocol; (4) if the obtained vendor is notsupported by the selected communication protocol, checking whether theselected communication protocol supports the generic vendor, and if theselected communication protocol does not support the generic vendor,removing, from the device object, the information for accessing thenetwork device using the selected communication protocol; and (5) if theobtained vendor is supported by the selected communication protocol,performing further tests related to model information.

In addition, the step of performing further tests related to modelinformation comprises: (1) determining whether a model of the networkdevice can be obtained from the network device using the selectedcommunication protocol; (2) if the preceding determining step determinesthat the model can not be obtained using the selected communicationprotocol, checking whether the selected communication protocol supportsa generic model, and if the selected communication protocol does notsupport the generic model, removing, from the device object, theinformation for accessing the network device using the selectedcommunication protocol; (3) if the preceding determining step determinesthat the model can be obtained using the selected communicationprotocol, obtaining the model from the network device and determiningwhether the obtained model is supported by the selected communicationprotocol; and (4) if the obtained model is not supported by the selectedcommunication protocol, checking whether the selected communicationprotocol supports the generic model, and if the selected communicationprotocol does not support the generic model, removing, from the deviceobject, the information for accessing the network device using theselected communication protocol.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the invention and many of the attendantadvantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes betterunderstood by reference of the following detailed description whenconsidered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates three networked business office devices connected toa network of computers and databases through the Internet;

FIG. 2 illustrates the components of a digital image forming apparatus;

FIG. 3 illustrates the electronic components of the digital imageforming apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 illustrates details of a multi-port communication interfaceillustrated in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative system configuration in which businessoffice devices are either connected directly to the network or connectedto a computer which is connected to the network;

FIG. 6A is a block diagram illustrating a flow of information to andfrom an application unit using electronic mail;

FIG. 6B illustrates an alternative way of communicating using electronicmail in which a computer that is connected to the application unit alsoserves as a Message Transfer Agent (MTA);

FIG. 6C illustrates an alternative way of communicating using electronicmail in which an application unit includes a message transfer agent forexchanging electronic mail;

FIG. 6D illustrates an alternative way of communicating using electronicmail in which a mail server acts as a POP3 server to receive mail for anappliance/device and as an Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) serverto send mail for the appliance/device;

FIG. 7 illustrates an alternative manner of sending messages across theInternet;

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary computer which may be connected to anappliance/device and used to communicate electronic mail messages;

FIG. 9 is a schematic representation of the overall system in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates modules used in the monitoring of the data and theirinterface functions in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 11 shows details within the Monitor module and their callingfunctions between the sub-modules;

FIG. 12 shows a data structure used by HWaccess submodule as illustratedin FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 shows the sequence of the init function of the Monitor moduleillustrated in FIG. 10;

FIG. 14 shows an exemplary sequence of the status monitor function todetermine the status of a monitored device by the MonitorManager, asshown in FIG. 11;

FIG. 15 shows a vector of the reference to the devices created byCDeviceFactory and used by the MonitorManager, as illustrated in FIG.13;

FIG. 16 shows the class structure of the DeviceODBC module including theabstract class CAbsProtocolParameters;

FIG. 17 illustrates the SParameter data structure used to storeparameter values necessary to access monitored devices according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 18 illustrates a map structure used to store parameter valuesnecessary to access monitored devices according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 19 illustrates the organization of the monitor database used in thepresent invention;

FIGS. 20-22 illustrate the organization of a support database arrangedaccording to communication protocol according to the present invention;

FIG. 23 illustrates the class structure of the HWaccess module accordingto the present invention;

FIG. 24 illustrates the class structure of the SNMP module according tothe present invention;

FIG. 25 illustrates the class structure of the HTTP module according tothe present invention;

FIG. 26 illustrates the class structure of the FTP module according tothe present invention;

FIGS. 27A-27D illustrate the data structures used in the HWaccess moduleof FIG. 23 to maintain information necessary to access the monitoreddevices and to obtain status information from the monitored devicesaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 28 shows a flowchart describing the process of initializing theprotocol objects with vendor information of a monitored device accordingto the present invention;

FIGS. 29A-29D illustrate the data structures used to obtain the statusinformation of a monitored device of a specific vendor and model foreach protocol according to the present invention;

FIG. 30 illustrates an example of sample data for the data structures ofFIGS. 27D, 29C, and 29D that will be used to obtain status informationfrom a monitored device using the FTP protocol according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 31A shows a flowchart describing the process of obtaining statusinformation from a monitored device for a communication protocolaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 31B shows a flowchart describing the process of obtaining statusinformation from a monitored device using all of the communicationprotocols according to the present invention;

FIG. 32A shows the data structure used to maintain information about thevendors and models of monitored devices supported by a given protocolaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 32B shows an example of the data structure shown in FIG. 32A;

FIG. 33 shows a flowchart describing the method of adding vendors andmodels supported to the data structure of FIG. 32A according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 34 shows a flowchart describing the method of obtaining the vendorand model supported by a protocol from the data structure of FIG. 32Aaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 35 shows the class structure of the Device module according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 36A shows the data structure used by the software objectsrepresenting the monitored devices to determine which protocols are usedto access a monitored device according to the present invention;

FIG. 36B shows sample data in the data structure of FIG. 36A; and

FIG. 37 shows a flowchart describing how the data structure of FIG. 36Ais updated to determine which protocols are used to obtain statusinformation for a monitored device according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic having various devices and computers formonitoring, diagnosing, and controlling the operation of the devices.Specifically, FIG. 1 includes a first network 16, such as a Local AreaNetwork (LAN) connected to computer workstations 17, 18, 20, and 22. Theworkstations can be any type of computers including, e.g., PersonalComputer devices, Unix-based computers, Linux-based computers, or AppleMacintoshes. Also connected to the network 16 are a digitalimage-forming apparatus 24, a facsimile machine 28, and a printer 32. Aswould be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art, two or more ofthe components of the digital copier/printer 24 and the facsimilemachine 28 can be combined into a unified “image forming apparatus.” Forexample, the copier/printer 24, facsimile machine 28, the printer 32,and the workstations 17, 18, 20, and 22 may be referred to as machinesor monitored devices. In some configurations, one or more workstationsmay be converted to business office appliances. In addition, any networkbusiness office appliance/device can be attached to the network 16.Also, any workstation 17, 18, 20, and 22, and office appliance 27 canfunction as an intermediate monitoring device to poll the monitoreddevices on the network 16 and to send the collected data to themonitoring device.

One example of such a business office appliance is eCabinet® from RicohCorporation. Also, a facsimile server (not illustrated) may be connectedto the network 16 and have a telephone, cable, or wireless connection.Each of the digital copier/printer 24, facsimile machine 28, and printer32, in addition to being connected to the network 16, may also includeconventional telephone and/or cable and/or wireless connections 26, 30,and 34, respectively. As explained below, the monitored devices 24, 28,and 32, communicate with a remote monitoring, diagnosis, and controlstation, also referred to as a monitoring device, through, for example,the Internet via the network 16 or by a direct telephone, wireless, orcable connection.

In another exemplary business environment, monitored devices may includesuch devices as a multi-function imaging device, a scanner, a projector,a conferencing system, and a shredder. In another application, thenetwork 16 may be a home network where monitored devices are meters(electricity, gas, water) or appliances such as, for example, microwaveoven, washer, dryer, dishwasher, home entertainment system,refrigerator, rice cooker, heater, air condition, water heater, securitycamera.

In FIG. 1, a wide area network (WAN) (e.g., the Internet or itssuccessor) is generally designated by 10. The WAN 10 can be either aprivate WAN, a public WAN, or a hybrid type. The WAN 10 includes aplurality of interconnected computers and routers designated by 12A-12I.The manner of communicating over a WAN is known through a series ofRequest for Comments (RFC) documents available from the InternetEngineering Task Force (IETF) at www.ietf.org/rfc.html, including RFC821, entitled “Simple Mail Transfer Protocol”; RFC 822, entitled“Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Message”; RFC 959,entitled “File Transfer Protocol (FTP)”; RFC 2045, entitled“Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format ofInternet Message Bodies”; RFC 1894, entitled “An Extensible MessageFormat for Delivery Status Notifications”; RFC 1939, entitled “PostOffice protocol—Version 3”; RFC 2068, “Hypertext TransferProtocol—HTTP/1.1”; and RFC 2298, entitled “An Extensible Message Formatfor Message Disposition Notifications.” The contents of each of thesereferences are incorporated herein by reference.

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) relatedcommunication is described, for example, in the book “TCP/IPIllustrated,” Vol. 1, The Protocols, by W. R. Stevens, fromAddison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1994, the entire contents of which isincorporated herein by reference. Volumes 1-3 of “Internetworking withTCP/IP” by Comer and Stevens are also incorporated herein by referencein their entirety.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 1, a firewall 50A is connected between theWAN 10 and the network 16. A firewall is a device that allows onlyauthorized computers on one side of the firewall to access a network,computers, or individual parts on the other side of the firewall.Firewalls are known and commercially available devices and/or software(e.g., ZoneAlarm from Zone Labs). Similarly, firewalls 50B and 50Cseparate the WAN 10 from a network 52 and a workstation 42,respectively. Additional details on firewalls can be found in “Firewallsand Internet Security” by W. R. Cheswick, and S. M. Bellovin, 1994,Addison Wesley Publishing, and “Building Internet Firewalls” by D. B.Chapman and E. D. Zwicky, 1995, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. The entirecontents of those two references are incorporated herein by reference.

The network 52 is a conventional network and includes a plurality ofworkstations 56, 62, 68, and 74. These workstations may be located in adistributed fashion within different departments (e.g., sales, orderprocessing, accounting, billing, marketing, manufacturing, designengineering, and customer service departments) within a single company.In addition to the workstations connected via the network 52, aworkstation 42 that is not directly connected to the network 52 is alsoprovided. Information in a database stored in a disk 46 connected to theworkstation 42 may be shared using proper encryption and protocols overthe WAN 10 to the workstations connected directly to the network 52.Also, the workstation 42 includes a direct connection to a telephoneline and/or a cable network and/or a wireless network 44, and thedatabase in disk 46 may be accessed through the telephone line, thecable network, or via the wireless network 44. The cable network used bythis invention may be implemented using a cable network that istypically used to carry television programming, a cable that providesfor high-speed communication of digital data typically used withcomputers or the like, or any other desired type of cable.

In another embodiment, the workstation 42 can be a laptop computer, aPDA, a palm top computer, or a cellular phone with network capability.These devices may be used to access information stored in the databasestored in the disk 46.

Information related to digital copier/printer 24, office appliance 27,facsimile machine 28, or printer 32, respectively, may be stored in oneor more of the databases stored in the disks 46, 54, 58, 64, 70, and 76.Known databases include (1) SQL databases by Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, andSybase; (2) other relational databases; and (3) non-relational databases(including object-oriented databases from Objectivity, JYD SoftwareEngineering, and Orient Technologies). Each of the sales, orderprocessing, accounting, billing, customer service, marketing,manufacturing, and engineering departments may have their own databaseor may share one or more databases. Each of the disks used to storedatabases is a non-volatile memory such as a hard disk or optical disk.Alternatively, the databases may be stored in any storage deviceincluding solid state and/or semiconductor memory devices. For example,disk 64 may be stored with a marketing database, disk 58 may be storedwith a manufacturing database, disk 70 may be stored with an engineeringdatabase, and disk 76 may be stored with a customer service database.Alternatively, the disks 54 and 46 may be stored with one or more of thedatabases.

In addition to the workstations 56, 62, 68, 74, and 42 being connectedto the WAN 10, these workstations may also include a connection to atelephone line, cable, or wireless networks for providing a secureconnection to a machine/device being monitored, diagnosed, and/orcontrolled. Additionally, if one of the communication media is notoperating properly, one of the others may be automatically used, as abackup, for communication.

A feature of the present invention is the use of a “store-and-forward”mode of communication (e.g., Internet electronic mail, also referred toherein as e-mail) or transmission between a machine and acomputer/monitoring system for diagnosing and controlling the machine.Alternatively, the message which is transmitted may be implemented usinga mode of communication that makes direct, end-to-end connections (e.g.,using a socket connection to the ultimate destination) such as FTP andHyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

FIG. 2 illustrates the mechanical layout of the digital copier/printer24 illustrated in FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, 101 is a fan for the scanner, 102is a polygonal mirror used with a laser printer, and 103 designates an Fθ lens used to collimate light from a laser (not illustrated). Referencenumeral 104 designates a sensor for detecting light from the scanner.Reference numeral 105 designates a lens for focusing light from thescanner onto the sensor 104, and reference numeral 106 designates aquenching lamp used to erase images on the photoconductive drum 132.There is a charging corona unit 107 and a developing roller 108.Reference numeral 109 designates a lamp used to illustrate a document tobe scanned and elements 110, 111, and 112 designate mirrors forreflecting light onto the sensor 104. A drum mirror 113 is provided toreflect light to the photoconductive drum 132 originating from thepolygon mirror 102. A fan 114 is used to cool the charging area of thedigital image forming apparatus, and a first paper feed roller 115 isused for feeding paper from the first paper cassette 117, and areference numeral 116 designates a manual feed table. Similarly, asecond feed paper feed roller 118 is used in conjunction with the secondcassette 119. Reference numeral 120 designates a relay roller, 121designates a registration roller, 122 designates an image densitysensor, and 123 designates a transfer/separation corona unit. Referencenumeral 124 designates a cleaning unit, 125 designates a vacuum fan, 126designates a transport belt, 127 designates a pressure roller; and 128designates an exit roller. A hot roller 129 is used to fix toner ontothe paper, 130 designates an exhaust fan, and a main motor 131 is usedto drive the digital copier/printer 24.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the electronic components of thedigital copier/printer 24 of FIG. 2, wherein CPU 160 is a microprocessorthat acts as a controller of the apparatus. Random access memory (RAM)162 stores dynamically changing information including operatingparameters of the digital copier/printer 24. A non-volatile memory(e.g., a read only memory (ROM) 164 or a Flash Memory) stores programcode used to run the digital copier/printer as well as static-statedata, describing the copier/printer 24 (e.g., the model name, modelnumber, serial number of the device, and default parameters).

A multi-port network interface 166 is provided to enable the digitalcopier/printer 24 to communicate with external devices through at leastone communication network. Reference number 168 represents a telephone,wireless or cable line, and numeral 170 represents another type ofnetwork different from the network identified at 168. Additional detailsof the multi-port network interface are set forth with respect to FIG.4. An interface controller 172 is used to connect an operation panel 174to a system bus 186. The operation panel 174 includes standard input andoutput devices found on a digital copier/printer 24 including a copybutton, keys to control the operation of the image forming apparatussuch as, for example, number of copies, reduction/enlargement,darkness/lightness, etc. Additionally, a liquid crystal display may beincluded within the operation panel 174 to display parameters andmessages of the digital copier/printer 24 to a user.

A local connection interface 171 is a connection through local portssuch as RS232, the parallel printer port, USB, and IEEE 1394. FireWire(IEEE 1394) is described in Wickelgren, I., “The Facts About “FireWire”,IEEE Spectrum, April 1997, Vol. 34, Number 4, pp. 19-25, the entirecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Preferably, a“reliable” communication protocol is used which includes error detectionand retransmission.

A storage interface 176 connects storage devices to the system bus 186.For example, the storage devices include a flash memory 178, which canbe substituted by a conventional Electrically Erasable Programmable ReadOnly Memory (EEPROM), and a disk 182. The disk 182 may be a hard disk,optical disk, and/or a floppy disk drive. Additional memory devices maybe connected to the digital copier/printer 24 via connection 180. Theflash memory 178 is used to store semi-static state data that describesparameters of the digital copier/printer 24 that infrequently changeover the life of the apparatus 24. Such parameters include, for example,the options and configuration of the digital copier/printer. An optioninterface 184 allows additional hardware, such as an external interface,to be connected to the digital copier/printer 24. A clock/timer 187 isutilized to keep track of both the time and date and also to measureelapsed time.

FIG. 3 also illustrates the various sections making up the digitalcopier/printer 24. Reference numeral 202 designates a sorter andcontains sensors and actuators that are used to sort the output of thedigital copier/printer 24. A duplexer 200 allows performance of a duplexoperation. The duplexer 200 includes conventional sensors and actuators.A large capacity tray unit 198 is provided for allowing paper traysholding a large number of sheets. As with the duplexer 200, the trayunit 198 includes conventional sensors and actuators as well.

A paper feed controller 196 is used to control the operation of feedingpaper into and through the digital image forming device. A scanner 194is used to scan images into the digital image forming device andincludes conventional scanning elements such as a light, mirror, etc.Additionally, scanner sensors are used such as a home position sensor todetermine that the scanner is in the home position, and a lampthermistor is used to ensure proper operation of the scanning lamp. Aprinter/imager 192 prints the output of the digital image formingdevice, and includes a conventional laser printing mechanism, a tonersensor, and an image density sensor. The fuser 190 is used to fuse thetoner onto the page using a high temperature roller and includes an exitsensor, a thermistor to assure that the fuser 190 is not overheating,and an oil sensor. Additionally, there is an optional unit interface 188used to connect to optional elements of the digital image forming devicesuch as an automatic document feeder, a different type ofsorter/collator, or other elements which can be added to the digitalimage forming device. Other elements include a GPS unit that canidentify the location of the device.

FIG. 4 illustrates details of the multi-port network interface 166. Thedigital image forming device may communicate to external devices througha token ring interface 220, a cable modem unit 222, which has a highspeed connection over cable, a conventional telephone interface 224,which connects to a telephone line 168A, a wireless interface 228, or anEthernet interface 230, which connects to a LAN 170. Other interfacesmay include, but are not limited to, a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)(original DSL, concentric DSL, and asymmetric DSL). A single devicewhich connects to both a Local Area Network and a telephone line iscommercially available from Intel and is known as Intel Pro10/100+Modem.

The CPU or other microprocessor or circuitry executes a monitoringprocess to monitor the state of each of the sensors of the digital imageforming device, and a sequencing process is used to execute theinstructions of the code used to control and operate the digital imageforming device. Additionally, there is (1) a central system controlprocess executed to control the overall operation of the digital imageforming device, and (2) a communication process used to assure reliablecommunication to external devices connected to the digital image formingdevice. The system control process monitors and controls data storage ina static state memory (e.g., the ROM 164 of FIG. 3), a semi-staticmemory (e.g., the flash memory 178 or disk 182), or the dynamic statememory (e.g., a volatile or non-volatile memory (e.g., the RAM 162, theflash memory 178, or disk 182). Additionally, the static state memorymay be a device other than the ROM 164 such as a non-volatile memoryincluding either of the flash memory 178 or disk 182.

The above details have been described with respect to a digital imageforming device, but the present invention is equally applicable to otherbusiness office machines or devices such as an analog copier, afacsimile machine, a scanner, a printer, a facsimile server, projector,conferencing equipment, shredder, or other business office machines, abusiness office appliance, or other appliances (e.g., a microwave oven,VCR, DVD, digital camera, cellular phone, palm top computer).Additionally, the present invention includes other types of devices thatoperate using store-and-forward or direct connection-basedcommunication. Such devices include metering systems (including gas,water, or electricity metering systems), vending machines, or anymechanical device (e.g., automobiles, washer, dryer) that needs to bemonitored during operation or remote diagnosis. In addition tomonitoring special purpose machines and computers, the invention can beused to monitor, control, and diagnose a general purpose computer thatwould be the monitored and/or controlled device.

FIG. 5 illustrates an alternative system diagram of the presentinvention in which different devices and subsystems are connected to theWAN 10. However, there is no requirement to have each of these devicesor subsystems as part of the invention. Each component or subsystemillustrated in FIG. 5 is individually part of the invention. Further,the elements illustrated in FIG. 1 may be connected to the WAN 10 whichis illustrated in FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, there is illustrated a firewall50-1 connected to an intranet 260-1. A service machine 254 connected tothe intranet 260-1 includes therein, or has connected thereto, data 256that may be stored in a database format. The data 256 includes history,performance, malfunction, and any other information such as statisticalinformation of the operation or failure or set-up of the monitoreddevices, or configuration information such as which components oroptional equipment is included with the monitored devices. The servicemachine 254 may be implemented as the device or computer that requeststhe monitored devices to transmit data, or that requests that remotecontrol and/or diagnostic tests be performed on the monitored devices.The service machine 254 may be implemented as any type of device, and ispreferably implemented using a computerized device such as a generalpurpose computer. Also, Service Machine 254 may consist of multiplecomputers over the network with diverse database including billing,accounting, service processing, parts tracking and reports.

Another sub-system of FIG. 5 includes a firewall 50-2, an intranet260-2, and a printer 262 connected thereto. In this sub-system, thefunctions of sending and receiving electronic messages by the printer262 (and similarly by a copier 286) are performed by (1) circuitry, (2)a microprocessor, or (3) any other type of hardware contained within ormounted to the printer 262 (i.e., without using a separate generalpurpose computer).

An alternate type of sub-system includes the use of an Internet ServiceProvider 264, which may be any type of Internet Service Provider (ISP),including known commercial companies such as America Online, Earthlink,and Niftyserve. In this sub-system, a computer 266 is connected to theISP 264 through a digital or analog modem (e.g., a telephone line modem,a cable modem, modems which use any type of wires such as modems usedover an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), modems that use framerelay communication, wireless modems such as a radio frequency modem, afiber optic modem, or a device that uses infrared light waves). Further,a business office device 268 is connected to the computer 266. As analternative to the business office device 268 (or any other deviceillustrated in FIG. 5), a different type of machine may be monitored orcontrolled such as a digital copier, any type of appliance, securitysystem, or utility meter, such as an electrical, water, or gas utilitymeter, or any other device discussed herein.

Also illustrated in FIG. 5 is a firewall 50-3 connected to a network274. The network 274 may be implemented as any type of computer network,(e.g., an Ethernet or token ring network). Networking software that maybe used to control the network includes any desired networking softwareincluding software commercially available from Novell or Microsoft. Thenetwork 274 may be implemented as an intranet, if desired. A computer272 connected to the network 274 may be used to obtain information froma business office device 278 and generate reports such as reportsshowing problems that occurred in various machines connected to thenetwork, and a monthly usage report of the devices connected to thenetwork 274. In this embodiment, a computer 276 is connected between thebusiness office device 278 and the network 274. This computer receivescommunications from the network and forwards the appropriate commands ordata, or any other information, to the business office device 278.

Communication between the business office device 278 and the computer276 may be accomplished using wire-based or wireless methods including,but not limited to, radio frequency connections, electrical connections,and light connections (e.g., an infrared connection, or a fiber opticsconnection). Similarly, each of the various networks and intranetsillustrated in FIG. 5 may be established using any desired mannerincluding through the establishment of wireless networks such as radiofrequency networks. The wireless communication described herein may beestablished using spread spectrum techniques including techniques whichuse a spreading code and frequency hopping techniques such as thefrequency hopping wireless technique disclosed in the BluetoothSpecification (available at the World Wide Web site www.bluetooth.com),which is incorporated herein by reference.

Another sub-system illustrated in FIG. 5 includes a firewall 50-4, anintranet 260-4, a computer 282 connected thereto, a business officeappliance 285 and a copier 286. The computer 282 may be used to generatereports and request diagnostic or control procedures. These diagnosticand control procedures may be performed with respect to the businessoffice appliance 285 and the copier 286 or any of the other devicesillustrated in or used with FIG. 5. While FIG. 5 illustrates a pluralityof firewalls, the firewalls are preferable, but optional equipment, andtherefore, the invention may be operated without the use of firewalls,if desired. For the monitoring and controlling of the networkedequipment, any computers (266, 272, or 282) can be used instead of 254.In addition, any computer may access 254 to retrieve necessary deviceinformation or usage information through the web.

FIG. 6A illustrates a device/appliance 300 connected to a typical e-mailexchange system, which includes components 302, 304, 306, 308, 310, 312,314, 316, and 318, which may be implemented in a conventional manner,and are adapted from FIG. 28.1 of Stevens, above. A computer interface302 interfaces with any of the application units or devices/appliances300 described herein. While FIG. 6A illustrates that thedevice/appliance 300 is the sender, the sending and receiving functionsmay be reversed in FIG. 6A. Furthermore, if desired, the user may notneed to interface with the device/appliance 300 at all. The computerinterface 302 then interacts with a mail agent 304. Popular mail agentsfor Unix include MH, Berkeley Mail, Elm, and Mush. Mail agents for theWindows family of operating systems include Microsoft Outlook andMicrosoft Outlook Express. At the request of the computer interface 302,the mail agent 304 creates e-mail messages to be sent and, if desired,places these messages to be sent in a queue 306. The mail to be sent isforwarded to a Message Transfer Agent (MTA) 308. A common MTA for Unixsystems is Sendmail. Typically, the message transfer agents 308 and 312exchange communications using a TCP/IP connection 310. Notably, thecommunication between the message transfer agents 308 and 312 may occurover any size network (e.g., WAN or LAN). Further, the message transferagents 308 and 312 may use any communication protocol. In one embodimentthe present invention, elements 302 and 304 of FIG. 6A reside in thelibrary to monitor the usage of the application unit.

From the message transfer agent 312, e-mail messages are stored in usermailboxes 314, which are transferred to the mail agent 316 andultimately transmitted to the user at a terminal 318 which functions asa receiving terminal.

This “store-and-forward” process relieves the sending mail agent 304from having to wait until a direct connection is established with themail recipient. Because of network delays, the communication couldrequire a substantial amount of time during which the application wouldbe unresponsive. Such delays in responsiveness may generally beunacceptable to users of the application unit. By using e-mail as thestore-and-forward process, retransmission attempts after failures occurautomatically for a fixed period of time (e.g., three days). In analternate embodiment, the application can avoid waiting by passingcommunicating requests to one or more separate threads. Those threadscan then control communication with the receiving terminal 318 while theapplication begins responding to the user interface again. In yetanother embodiment in which a user wishes to have communicationcompleted before continuing, direct communication with the receivingterminal is used. Such direct communication can utilize any protocol notblocked by a firewall between the sending and receiving terminals.Examples of such protocols include Telnet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP),and Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

Public WANs, such as the Internet, are generally not considered to besecure. Therefore, if it is desired to keep messages confidential,messages transmitted over the public WANs (and multi-company privateWANs) can be encrypted. Encryption mechanisms are known and commerciallyavailable and may be used with the present invention. For example, a C++library function, crypt( ), is available from Sun Microsystems for usewith the Unix operating system. Encryption and decryption softwarepackages are known and commercially available and may also be used withthis invention. One such package is PGP available from PGP Corporation.

As an alternative to the general structure of FIG. 6A, a single computerthat functions as the computer interface 302, the mail agent 304, themail queue 306, and the message transfer agent 308 may be used. Asillustrated in FIG. 6B, the device/appliance 300 is connected to acomputer 301, which includes the message transfer agent 308.

A further alternative structure is shown in FIG. 6C in which the messagetransfer agent 308 is formed as part of the device/appliance 300.Further, the message transfer agent 308 is connected to the messagetransfer agent 312 by a TCP/IP connection 310. In the embodiment of FIG.6C, the device/appliance 300 is directly connected to the TCP/IPconnection 310 with an e-mail capability. One use of the embodiment ofFIG. 6C includes using a facsimile machine with an e-mail capability(e.g., as defined in RFC 2305 (a simple mode of facsimile using Internetmail)) as the device/appliance 300.

FIG. 6D illustrates a system in which a device/appliance 300 does not byitself have the capability to directly receive e-mail, but has aconnection 310 to a mail server/POP3 server including a message transferagent 308 and a mail box 314 so that the device/appliance 300 uses thePOP3 protocol to retrieve received mail from the mail server.

FIG. 7 illustrates an alternative implementation of transferring mailand is adapted from FIG. 28.3 of Stevens referenced previously. FIG. 7illustrates an electronic mail system having a relay system at each end.The arrangement of FIG. 7 allows one system at an organization to act asa mail hub. In FIG. 7, there are four MTAs connected between the twomail agents 304 and 316. These MTAs include local MTA 322A, relay MTA328A, relay MTA 328B, and local MTA 322D. The most common protocol usedfor mail messages is SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) which may beused with this invention, although any desired mail protocol may beutilized. In FIG. 7, 320 designates a sending host which includes thecomputer interface 302, the mail agent 304, and the local MTA 322A. Thedevice/appliance 300 is connected to, or alternatively included within,the sending host 320. As another case, the device/appliance 300 and host320 can be in one machine where the host capability is built into thedevice/appliance 300. Other local MTAs 322B, 322C, 322E, and 322F mayalso be included. Mail to be transmitted and received may be queued in aqueue of mail 306B of the relay MTA 328A. The messages are transferredacross the TCP/IP connection 310 (e.g., an Internet connection or aconnection across any other type of network).

The transmitted messages are received by the relay MTA 328B and ifdesired, stored in a queue of mail 306C. The mail is then forwarded tothe local MTA 322D of a receiving host 342. The mail may be placed inone or more of the user mailboxes 314 and subsequently forwarded to themail agent 316, and finally forwarded to the user at a terminal 318. Ifdesired, the mail may be directly forwarded to the terminal without userinteraction.

The various computers used in the present invention, including thecomputers 266 and 276 of FIG. 5, may be implemented as illustrated inFIG. 8. Further, any other computer used in this invention may beimplemented in a similar manner to the computer illustrated in FIG. 8,if desired, including the service machine 254, computer 272, andcomputer 282 of FIG. 5. However, not every element illustrated in FIG. 8is required in each of those computers.

In FIG. 8, the computer 360 includes a CPU 362 which may be implementedas any type of processor including commercially availablemicroprocessors from companies such as Intel, AMD, Motorola, Hitachi andNEC. There is a working memory such as a RAM 364, and a wirelessinterface 366 that communicates with a wireless device 368. Thecommunication between the interface 366 and device 368 may use anywireless medium (e.g., radio waves or light waves). The radio waves maybe implemented using a spread spectrum technique such as Code DivisionMultiple Access (CDMA) communication or using a frequency hoppingtechnique such as that disclosed in the Bluetooth specification.

Computer 360 includes a ROM 370 and a flash memory 371, although anyother type of non-volatile memory (e.g., Erasable Programmable ROM, oran EEPROM) may be used in addition to or in place of the flash memory371. An input controller 372 has connected thereto a keyboard 374 and amouse 376. There is a serial interface 378 connected to a serial device380. Additionally, a parallel interface 382 is connected to a paralleldevice 384, a universal serial bus (USB) interface 386 is connected to auniversal serial bus device 388, and also there is an IEEE 1394 device400, commonly referred to as a fire wire device, connected to an IEEE1394 interface 398. A system bus 390 connects the various elements ofthe computer 360. A disk controller 396 is connected to a floppy diskdrive 394 and a hard disk drive 392. A communication controller 406allows the computer 360 to communicate with other computers (e.g., bysending e-mail messages) over a network 404. An I/O (Input/Output)controller 408 is connected to a printer 410 and a hard disk 412, forexample using a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) bus. There isalso a display controller 416 connected to a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) 414,although any other type of display may be used including a liquidcrystal display, a light emitting diode display, a plasma display, etc.

Referring now to FIG. 9, there is shown a schematic representation ofthe overall system 900 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention. System 900 is shown to include a plurality ofdevices, for example, a laser printer 908, a scanner 910, a networkdevice 912, and a multi-function printer 914, all connected to a network100. These plurality of devices are generally referred to herein as“monitored devices.” The system 900 also includes aworkstation/monitoring system 902 (hereinafter referred to as acontroller 902), connected to the network 100 for monitoring andcontrolling the monitored devices 908, 910, 912, and 914. Each of themonitored devices 908, 910, 912, and 914 are given a unique address. Forexample, an IP address assigned to a device serves as a unique addressfor the device. Thus, a user at controller 902 is able to access arespective device among the monitored devices 908-914 by accessing theunique IP address assigned to the respective monitored device. It willbe appreciated that the present invention is not limited to using IPaddresses to uniquely identify devices connected to a network.

The controller 902, upon accessing a device among the monitored devices908-914, obtains various information through SNMP or/and HTTP protocols.Such information includes detailed information about the operationalstatus of the device including troubleshooting information. For example,controller 902 accesses and obtains the jam location of a particulardevice and sends a message to the person in charge of the device toclear the jam. The operational status/details of the laser printer 908include such details as toner level, indication of paper jam, quantityof print paper in printer trays, etc.

It will be appreciated that the controller 902 may be either physicallyconnected or wirelessly coupled to the network 100. For example, apersonal digital assistant (PDA) 920 or a laptop computer 922, shown tobe wirelessly coupled to the network 100, may also be used as acontroller 902. An access point 924 acts as an interface to enablewireless communications between the network 100 and PDA 922 or laptopcomputer 922. Henceforth, the present invention will be described withthe assumption that the controller 902 will be controlling andmonitoring the status of the monitored devices connected to the network.

The network 100 facilitates communication between the controller 902 andthe monitored devices 908-914 to enable monitoring and control of suchmonitored devices. The number of devices that are connected to thenetwork is not limiting of the present invention. It will be appreciatedthat the network 100 may be a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN). Likewise, the monitored devices 908, 910, 912, and 914are shown to be merely exemplary.

The controller 902 is communicatively coupled to a storage device 904and a database 906. The storage device 904 includes a hard disk, opticaldisk, and/or an external disk drive. The database 906 is communicativelylinked to the storage device 904, and includes a Relational DatabaseManagement System (RDBMS) for easy search and retrieval of data storedin the storage device 904. The storage device 904 preferably storesdetailed information about each of the monitored devices 908-914. Forexample, detailed information, such as the make, model, and variousfunctions and trouble-shooting details of the laser printer 908 arestored in the storage device 904. Also, deviation values about theoperational status of the laser printer compared to predeterminedreference values may also be stored in the storage device 904. Althoughthe database 906 and the storage device 904 are described to becommunicatively coupled to the controller 902, it will be appreciatedthat the controller 902 may be built with the storage device and thedatabase installed therein. In such a case, the storage device 906 andthe database 904 would be depicted as being internal to the controller902.

The controller 902 is installed with software in order to facilitatemonitoring and control of the plurality, of devices 908-914. SimpleNetwork Management Protocol (SNMP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP) andHyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) are used by the controller 902 formonitoring the plurality of devices 908-914 and the data received fromthe plurality of devices 908-914 is presented in the form of ASN.1Binary format or HTML or XML formats, as shown in 950.

Although FIG. 9 illustrates only the imaging devices, the network forcommunicating information between the monitoring device and theplurality of monitored devices may include the home network where theappliances and meters are connected to the network. It will beappreciated that data collected by the controller/workstation 902 can besent through e-mail, FTP, or any other communication protocol means to aremote device for further processing. Though the workstation 902, PDA920, or the laptop 922 can be the controller that collects the data andstores the data or sends the data through a communication protocol, itwill be appreciated that the controller can be any of the devicesconnected to the network. Any of the network devices (e.g. printers) cancontain the monitoring system capable of monitoring the status of otherdevices in the network, storing the collected data and/or sending thecollected data through any other communication protocol means (e.g.,e-mail, FTP). The Xerox Document 4025 and HP LaserJet 9000 are bothcapable of sending e-mail.

Monitoring System Architecture

FIG. 10 illustrates a monitoring system 1000 (and associated interfacefunctions) used in the monitoring of data associated with remote devicesaccording to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Themonitoring system 1000 includes the software module MonitorService 1004,which is a computer resident program such as Service in NT or Windows2000, and Daemon in Unix. In a preferred embodiment, the monitoringsystem is implemented using an objected-oriented software environment.Also included in the monitoring system 1000 are a Timer module 1002 andMonitor module 1006. Timer module 1002 and Monitor module 1006 arelibrary functions to be called by the MonitorService module 1004. Forexample, MonitorService 1004 initializes the Timer module 1002 bycalling the InitTimer 1003 function and obtains delay and actionparameters by calling obtainDelayAndAction (int &, int &) function. Theinit( ) function is also called by the MonitorService module 1004 toinitialize various modules in the Monitor module 1006, as illustrated inFIG. 13. The init( ) function can be used to obtain the IP address andparamameter value assigned to a monitored device through an externalsource containing IP addresses, parameter names and values collectedthrough known methods. The Monitor module 1006 is communicativelycoupled to a support database 1024 and to a monitor database 1014, whichare described in more detail below.

Once the IP address of a monitored device is obtained, the IP address isused by the monitoring system to contact the monitored device to obtaininformation such as, manufacturer (vendor) and model information. Someof the functions executed by the monitoring system 1000 include:

void initTimer(void)

This function initializes the Timer. In particular, this functiontriggers the Timer object to get the timing information from theregistry.

void obtainDelayAndAction(int & out_nDelay, int & out_nAction)

This function returns the delay time in seconds for ::Sleep function(need to multiply 1000) and the action indicator. The action indicatoris defined as follows: 0=event checking; 1=sending the monitored data;and 2=monitoring and storing the data into the local database.

int init(void)

This function initializes the Monitor. In addition, it creates thedevices to be monitored. The return int is the error code in which zerois defined as no error.

int monitorStatus(int in_nAction)

This function monitors the preset information. The return int is theerror code in which zero is defined as no error.

int end(void)

This function cleans up the Monitor before closing the objects. Thereturn int is the error code in which zero is defined as no error.

Monitor Module

FIG. 11 shows the structural details of the Monitor module 1006,including the various software sub-modules, and the calling functionsbetween the sub-modules of the Monitor module 1006. The Monitor module1006 includes a Common module 1101 that contains classes used by manymodules, a MonitorManager module 1102 that manages the other sub-modules(including the DeviceODBC module 1104, the Device module 1110, and theHWaccess module 1116) to complete the tasks defined by interfacefunctions as illustrated in FIG. 10. Specifically, the DeviceODBC module1104 is accessed in order to access external device information throughthe standard interface. The HWaccess module 1116 obtains vendor, model,unique ID, and status information from the monitored devices using aselected communication protocol from among a plurality of communicationprotocols (e.g., HTTP, SNMP, and FTP). Each of the Monitor softwaremodules will be described in more detail below.

The following is a partial listing and description of the interfacesamong the Monitor modules discussed above. For example, some modules mayneed to have “init” functions or additional functions in order to obtainthe information in convenient formats.

void updateConfig(std::map<infoType, std::string> &)

Before this function is called, the calling function is preferred not toreplace the vendor and model entries if obtain functions return a nullstring. This function updates the device information database of thecurrent record in the DeviceODBC 1104. This function is most efficientwhen the ObtainConfig below is called initially. First, this functionchecks if the IP address is the same at the DeviceODBC 1104. If the IPaddress fields are not the same, the record with the correct IP addressis obtained from the database. Then, the other fields are copied and therecord is updated.

bool obtainConfig(std::map<infoType, std::string> &,std::map<std::string, std::vector<SParameter>> &)

This function obtains the map from DeviceODBC 1104 for the deviceinformation in the given format and the map of protocols and associatedparameters. The function returns true if there is data returned, falseif there is no more data.

bool saveStatus(std::map<infoType, std::string> &)

This function saves the status information into the DeviceODBC 1104. Thefunction returns true when saving is successful, false otherwise.

CDevice * createDevice(const std::string & in_sIP, CHWaccess &in_HWaccess, std::map<std::string, std::vector<SParameter>> &in_ProtocolParameters)

This function creates the device based upon in_sIP andin_ProtocolParameters. The created device is connected to the hardwarethrough CHWaccess. If the device can not be created, the functionreturns 0. Therefore, the calling object should check if the returnobject pointer is 0 or not.

bool canAccessHW(void)

This function returns true when the hardware can be accessed through thenetwork, false otherwise.

bool getVendor(std::string & out_sVendor)

This function returns the vendor name. If the device is not supported bythe system, but it can be accessed through one of the protocols, thestring shall contain “GENERIC.” If the error is detected in the process,the function returns false with null string. Otherwise, the functionreturns true.

bool getModel(std::string & out_sModel)

This function gets the model of the device. If the model is obtained,the function returns true. If the error is detected in the process, thefunction returns false with null string.

bool getUniqueID(std::string & out_sUniqueID)

This function returns the unique ID of the device. If the Unique ID isobtained, the function returns true. If the error is detected in theprocess, the function returns false with null string.

bool obtainStatus(map<infoType, std::string> & out_StatusMap)

This function returns the status map. The function returns true when thestatus is returned, false when status could not be obtained. Note thatthis function returns the different maps from the HWaccess and Devicemodules. In the Device module, event status information is added to themap returned from HWaccess and is cleared.

enum checkEventStatus(void)

This function triggers to obtain the event of the network device. Theenum type and values should be defined in the classes. The enum valuesshould include values eNoEventSinceClearAndNoEventDetected,eNoEventSinceClearAndEventDetected, eEventSinceClearAndNoEventDetected,eEventSinceClearAndEventDetected.

bool obtainEventStatus(std::map<infoType, std:: string> &out_EventStatusMap)

This function obtains event status information. The function returnstrue when the status is returned, false when status could not beobtained.

void clearEventStatus(void)

This function clears the event status accumulated since the lastobtainStatus function call or clearEventStatus.

void initBegin(void)

This function starts the initialization process through HWaccess, inparticular, to create the software device objects.

void initEnd(void)

This function ends the initialization process through HWaccesssignifying that the device object creation is finished.

bool canAccessIP(const std::string & in_sIP, std::map<std::string,std::vector<SParameter>> & in_ProtocolParameters)

This function returns true when the device can be accessed at the IPaddress, false otherwise.

bool obtainVendor(std::string & out_sVendor, std::map<std::string,std::vector<SParameter>> & in Out_ProtocolParameters, const std::string& in_sIP)

This function obtains the Vendor. The function returns true if theoperation is successful, false with the empty string otherwise. Duringthis function call, the protocols are examined and if a particularprotocol can not be used for status monitoring, the protocol shall bedeleted from the in Out_ProtocolParameters.

bool obtainModel(std::string & out_sModelName, std::map<std::string,std::vector<SParameter>> & in Out_ProtocolParameters, const std::string& in_sIP)

This function obtains the Model name. The function returns true if theoperation is successful, false with the empty string otherwise. Duringthis function call, the protocols are examined, and if a particularprotocol can not be used for status monitoring, the protocol shall bedeleted from the in Out_ProtocolParameters.

bool obtainUniqueID(std::string & out_sUniqueID, std::map<std::string,std::vector<SParameter>> & in Out_ProtocolParameters, const std::string& in_sIP)

This function obtains the Unique ID. The function returns true if theoperation is successful, false with the empty string otherwise. Duringthis function call, the protocols are examined and if a particularprotocol can not be used for status monitoring, the protocol shall bedeleted from the in Out_ProtocolParameters.

EerrorCode obtainEventStatus(std::map<infoType, std::string> &out_StatusMap, const std::string & in_sIP, std::map<std::string,std::vector<SParameter>> & in_ProtocolParameters)

This function obtains the event status. The EerrorCode is defined below.

bool obtainStatus(std::map<infoType, std::string> & out_StatusMap, conststd::string & in_sIP, const std::string & in_sVendor, const std::string& in_sModel, std::map<std::string, std::vector<SParameter>> &in_ProtocolParameters)

This function obtains the status of the device. The function returnstrue if the operation is successful, false with the empty map otherwise.

FIG. 12 shows the data structure used by the HWaccess module 1116, asillustrated in FIG. 11, to exchange information for retrieval of valuesassociated with key values received by the HWaccess module 1116. Forexample, the SKeyValueInfo data structure, as shown in FIG. 12, is usedto determine how to obtain information corresponding to a particularinformation type (corresponding to m_infoType 1202) within a given webpage. Typically, a multitude of vendors use vendor-specific identifiersand nomenclature to identify key information, displayed on theirrespective web pages, related to a monitored device. For example, todetermine the number of pages printed by a printer device, HewlettPackard uses the “Page Count” feature, while Xerox identifies the sameusing a “Total Sheet Delivered” feature. A feature of the presentinvention is to overcome the vendor-to-vendor variances and therebyprovide a standardized and uniform method of identifying device-specificinformation and extract the value corresponding to the information byusing a data structure/SKeyValueInfo structure 1200. The SKeyValueInfodata structure 1200 includes attributes that are public.

The SKeyValueInfo is typically a data structure created to identifyvalue information from information that is received from a monitoreddevice in the form of a data string or a key string. The SKeyValueInfoincludes a plurality of fields, each field represented by informationillustrated in FIG. 12. The SKeyValueInfo structure 1200 includes anm_sKey field 1204 that represents a string key, an m_nPosition field1206, which is preferably a tag-based value indicating the number ofpositions in the string where a value information could be located, andan m_nInLinePosition field 1212. For example, the Page Count of aprinter device, subject to monitoring, may be found at a second positionfollowing a key word. m_sType 1208 represents the type of informationone can retrieve from a displayed web page of a monitored device.

When the value, such as, for example, model name of the monitoreddevice, is found within the same data line of the key (Product Name),the m_nPosition field is “0.” m_sDelimiter 1210 indicates a specificdelimiter used to extract the value associated with the key. TheSKeyValueInfo data structure indicates how to extract the valueinformation from information received from a monitored device in an HTMLformat.

FIG. 13 shows the sequence of the init( ) function to describe thecalling sequence of Monitor module 1006 as illustrated in FIG. 10. TheMonitorManager 1102 initializes the HWaccess module 1116 to start theinitialization function. Subsequently, the MonitorManager 1102 obtainsinformation about a monitored device and uses an IP address assigned tothe monitored device to communicate with the monitored device. TheMonitorManager 1102 accesses DeviceODBC 1104 to obtain configurationinformation of the monitored device. The configuration informationreturned to the MonitorManager 1102 includes, for example, an IP addressof the monitored device, parameter names and associated values for eachprotocol, and vendor/manufacturer and model information of the monitoreddevice. Once the IP address is obtained, the MonitorManager 1102 setsthe IP address, parameter names and associated values for each protocol,to create a software object based on class structure of the Devicemodule 1110 through the CDeviceFactory class 1302 of FIG. 35. When thedevice software object is successfully created, the HWaccess module 1116is used to obtain Vendor, Model, and Unique ID from the monitored deviceto be stored in the created device software object.

Once the vendor, model information, and unique ID are obtained from thedevice software object, the MonitorManager 1102 updates the database(for example, DeviceODBC 1104) with information received from themonitored device. Although FIG. 13 shows one device, the steps fromobtainConfig to updateConfig are repeated to cover all the devicesspecified in the external source. In addition, each protocol specifiedin FIGS. 23, 24, 25, and 26 is initialized. The database tablescorresponding to ODBC in the FIGS. 24, 25, and 26 are accessed andnecessary information for accessed devices are transferred from theexternal storage to the internal data structure so that the statusinformation collection from the accessed devices is faster.

FIG. 14 shows the sequence of the status monitor function to determinethe status of a monitored device by the MonitorManager module 1102, asillustrated in FIG. 11. When the obtainStatus function is issued fromDevice to HWaccess, the CHWaccess class in turn issues an obtainStatusfunction call to each protocol described in FIGS. 2324, 25, and 26through the abstract class, with different parameters, as describedbelow. Each protocol module has already cached information necessary toextract the status information from the monitored devices, which havealready been accessed once during the initialization time described inFIG. 13. Therefore, the status information can be quickly extracted fromthe monitored devices without accessing the external source during thestatus monitoring. This process is repeated over all the monitoreddevices stored in the vector as shown in FIG. 15.

Referring to FIG. 15, there is shown a vector 1500 having reference tothe devices created by the CDeviceFactory 1302 of FIG. 35 and used bythe MonitorManager 1102, as illustrated in FIGS. 13 and 14.MonitorManager 1102 stores device pointers, such as for example, Pointerto CDevice Object 1502, and Pointer to CDevice Object 1504 created byCDeviceFactory 1302 of FIG. 35, in the vector. The vector sequence isiterated to obtain the status of a monitored device. Polling ofmonitored devices is performed over the device object by issuing anobtainStatus command. Once the status of each of the software objects isobtained, such status is updated through the DeviceODBC 1104. The statusmonitor sequence was described above at FIG. 14, and will not berepeated herein.

The DeviceInfo structure shown in Table I illustrates the informationregarding one example monitored device. The DeviceInfo structureincludes the e-mail address of the contact person, in addition to thetelephone number. TABLE 1 Type Name Description std::string m_sVendor Astring representing the vendor of the network printer. std::stringm_sModel A string representing the model of the network printer.std::string m_sUniqueID A string representing the Unique ID of thenetwork printer. This ID may be a serial number or MAC Address or anyunique ID obtainable from the network printer. std::string m_sIPAddressA string representing the IP address of the network printer. std::stringm_sCompanyName A string representing the name of the company which ownsthe network printer. std::string m_sStreet A string representing thestreet address of the company. std::string m_sCity A string representingthe city where the company is located. std::string m_sState A stringrepresenting the state where the company is located. std::stringm_sZipCode A string representing the zip code of the company.std::string m_sLocation A string representing the location of thenetwork printer within the company. std::string m_sContactPerson Astring representing the name of the contact person responsible for thenetwork printer. std::string m_sPhoneNumber A string representing thephone number of the contact person. std::string m_sEMailAddress A stringrepresenting the e-mail address of the contact person.Monitor Database

FIG. 19 illustrates the organization of the monitor database, whichincludes the device information for each monitored device (see alsoTable I). As shown in FIG. 19, a set of parameters, one set for eachcommunication protocol (e.g., SNMP, HTTP, and FTP), is associated withthe device information DeviceInfo 1902 for each monitored device.Moreover, each set of parameters for a particular protocol (e.g., SNMP1908, HTTP 1910, and FTP 1912) is organized as a list of parameter nameand value pairs, e.g., sPar1Name and sPar1Value. Note that the number ofparameters for each protocol may be shorter or longer than the numbershown in FIG. 19. For example, a username and password may be stored asFTP parameters, while a community name and a password may be stored asSNMP parameters for a given monitored device. As shown in FIG. 19, themonitor database also includes information related to the DeviceHistory1904 and the EnumCorrespondence 1906.

FIG. 17 illustrates the SParameter data structure 1700 used to pass theparameters used by the various communication protocols. SParameterincludes two fields: m_sParName 1702 and m_sParValue 1704, whichrepresent the name and value of the parameter, respectively.

FIG. 18 illustrates the map structure 1800 used to pass a vector ofparameters for each protocol obtained from the monitor database to asoftware object associated with each monitored device. The map structure1800 associates each protocol/key field 1802, 1804, and 1806, with acorresponding vector of parameters 1808, 1810, and 1812, respectively,arranged according to the SParameter format shown in FIG. 17. Forexample, for the SNMP protocol 1802, the vector of parameters 1808 mayinclude a list of parameter name, parameter value pairs that are used toaccess the monitored device with the SNMP protocol. For example, theSNMP parameter names stored in the vector 1808 might include “CommunityName” and “Password”, together with the corresponding parameter values.Note, however, that the organization of the map structure 1800 allowsfor any number of protocols and associated parameter vectors, and is notlimited to the SNMP, HTTP, and FTP protocols shown in FIG. 18.

Support Database

FIGS. 20-22 illustrate the organization of the support database 1024shown in FIG. 10. The support database, which includes informationnecessary to extract status information from each monitored device, isorganized by communication protocol. For example, FIG. 20, whichillustrates the organization of the support database for SNMP-relatedsupport information used to extract information from a monitored device,includes SNMPVendor 2002, SNMPComVendorStatus 2004, EnumCorrespondence2006, and SNMPVendorModelStatus 2008 data structures. A given datastructure in the support database may include parameters that uniquelyidentify the type of status information to be extracted, along withparameters that control the extraction. For example, theSNMPComVendorStatus data structure 2004 include an nENUM field 2009,which identifies the type of information to be extracted (e.g., tonerlevel), and an nRelativePriority field 2010, which indicates the weightor importance of the extracted information relative to other protocols.Thus, if the same information may be extracted from the monitored deviceusing more than one protocol, the nRelativePriority value gives arelative indication of which protocol's extracted value should be used.For example, if HTTP is only able to extract information indicatingwhether the toner level is “high” or “low” while the SNMP protocol isable to extract the percentage level of toner remaining, the prioritylevel for the toner level for SNMP would be higher than thecorresponding value for HTTP. In addition, the support database mayprovide default priority values for an entire protocol. In oneembodiment, the SNMP protocol is given a priority value of 10,000 in asystem in which protocol values may range from 0 to 32,000.

FIGS. 21 and 22 illustrate the data structures included in the HTTP andFTP portions of the support database 1024 and includes data structuresanalogous to the data structures described above with regard to FIG. 20.

Exemplary enum types used by the present invention is the infoTypedefined below. (The enum types are merely exemplary and therefore shouldnot be construed as limiting the present invention.)

infoType (typedef int infoType)

This section describes the definition of the infoType (int). The valuerange 0 through 99 is assigned to the data type. The value range 100 to499 is assigned to Device Information. The value range 500 to 1999 isassigned to the common parameters including standard MIB parameters. Therange 2000 to 3999 is assigned to Ricoh-specific information. The range4000 to 4999 is assigned to Xerox. The range 5000 to 5999 is assigned toLexmark. The range 6000 to 6999 is assigned to HP. The values aredefined as follows:

-   -   infoType {eNotDefine=0, eDeviceInformation=1,        eStatusInformation=2, eVendor=100, eModel, eUniqueID,        eIPAddress, eCompanyName, eStreet, eCity, eState, eZipCode,        eLocation, eContactPerson, ePhoneNumber, eEMailAddress,        eDateTime=500, eHrDeviceErrors, eLowPaper, eNoPaper, eLowToner,        eNoToner, eDoorOpen, eJammed, eOffline, eServiceRequested,        ePrtGeneralConfigChanges=600, ePrtLifeCount, ePrtAlertDesc1,        ePrtAlertDesc2, ePrtAlertDesc3, ePrtAlertDesc4, ePrtAlertDesc5,        eBlack=700, eMagenta, eCyan, eYellow, eTonerCollector=800,        eBlackDeveloper=810, eColorDeveloper, eFuser=820, eDrum=830,        eTransfer=840, eMaintenanceKit=850, eOilKit=860,        eStationInfo1=901, eStationInfo2, eStationInfo3, eStationInfo4,        eStationInfo5, eRicohEngineCounterTotal=2000,        eRicohEngineCounterPrinter, eRicohEngineCounterFax,        eRicohEngineCounterCopier}.

EerrorCode

The following codes are merely exemplary, and more codes may be added tothe existing set. The range 0-99 is reserved. The range 100-199 is forSMTP, 200-299 is for POP3, 300-399 is for Socket, and 400-499 is forHTTP, and 500-599 is for FTP. Other ranges not specified may be definedby a user, if needed.

-   -   enum EerrorCode(eNoError=0, eUnknownError=1, eSomeError,        eCompleteFailure, eSomeDeviceCreationError=20,        eCreateDeviceError, eNoDeviceCreated, eObtainConfigError,        eSaveStatusError, eObtainUniqueIDError, eObtainStatusError,        eStartSendError, eSomeDataSendError, eCompleteDataSendFailure,        eEndSendError, eSendHeloCommandFailed=100,        eSendMailCommandFailed, eSendRcptCommandFailed,        eSendDataCommandFailed, eSendDataFailed, eSendQuitCommandFailed,        eSendUserCommandFailed=200, eSendPassCommandFailed,        eSendStatCommandFailed, eSendRetrCommandFailed,        eSendDeleCommandFailed, eSendQuitPop3CommandFailed,        eCreateSocketFailed=300, eConnectSocketFailed, eBadRequest=400,        eUnauthorized, ePaymentRequired, eForbidden, eNotFound,        eMethodNotAllowed, eNotAcceptable, eProxyAuthenticationRequired,        eRequestTimeOut, eConflict, eGone, eLengthRequired,        ePreconditionFailed, eRequestEntityTooLarge,        eRequestURITooLarge, eUnsupportedMediaType,        eRequestedRangeNotSatisfiable, eExpectationFailed,        elnternalServerError=450, eNotImplemented, eBadGateway,        eServiceUnavailable, eGatewayTimeOut, eHTTPVersionNotSupported,        eMultipleChoices=480, eMovedPermanently, eFound, eSeeOther,        eNotModified, eUseProxy, eTemporaryRedirect).        Abstract Classes in the DeviceODBC Module

FIG. 16 illustrates the DeviceODBC module class structure according tothe present invention, and shows how the CAbsProtocolParameters classstructure is used within the DeviceODBC module. TheCAbsProtocolParameters class is designed to interface with the monitordatabase 1014 and to obtain information for accessing the monitoreddevices using a particular communication protocol. TheCAbsProtocolParameters class has two virtual functions which areprotocol-independent:

-   (1) std::string obtainProtocolName(void); and-   (2) bool obtainParameterVector(std::vector<SParameter> &    out_ParameterVector, const std:: string in_sIP).    Using these functions, the CDeviceODBC class can handle as many    protocols and their associated parameter names and values through    the pointer to the CAbsProtocolParameter type, without identifying    the protocol. The obtained information for each device (e.g., IP    Address) is stored in the data structure of FIG. 18 and passed to    the MonitorManager module 1102 through the obtainConfig function.    From the CDeviceODBC perspective, all the objects used to obtain the    protocol name and the associated parameter names and values are    considered to be a type of CAbsProtocol Parameters. When a new    protocol is added, therefore, the new object should be created and    stored in the vector of pointers to CAbsProtocolParameters class.    The other functions do not need to be changed.    Abstract Classes in the HWaccess Module

FIG. 23 shows the package diagram for the HWaccess package. This packageis responsible for identifying the network devices to be monitored andobtaining information about the network devices using various networkprotocols (e.g. SNMP, HTTP, and FTP). The package contains the packagesHTTP 2302, SNMP 2304, and FTP 2306 and the classes CHWaccess 2300,CAbsProtocol 2308, and CRecordSet 2310. The packages HTTP 2302, SNMP2304, and FTP 2306 implement the network protocols to access the networkdevices to obtain information from them. For example, the HTTP package2302 implement the HTTP protocol to access the web pages of the networkdevices to obtain information from the web pages. The class CHWaccess2300 manages all the protocol packages to obtain the necessaryinformation from the network devices. The class CAbsProtocol 2308 is anabstract class representing any protocol. This class provides theinterface between CHWaccess 2300 and the protocol packages. The classCAbsProtocol 2308 provides a set of common functions as shown in FIG. 23to CHWaccess 2300 in which all protocols will provide CHWaccess 2300 thenecessary information. The classes derived from CAbsProtocol 2308 asdescribed in later figures will provide the method for each of thefunctions for the appropriate protocols. The class CRecordSet 2310 is aclass of the Microsoft Foundation Class that provides each of theprotocol package access to the database to obtain information aboutwhich vendor and model of network devices are supported and whatinformation to obtain from those network devices.

FIG. 24 shows the package diagram for the SNMP package 2304. Thispackage is responsible for determining the vendor and model of networkdevices supported by the SNMP protocol and the information to beobtained from the network devices by SNMP protocol, and for accessingthe network device through the SNMP protocol to obtain information fromthe network devices. The package contains the packages SNMPaccess 2404and SNMPODBC 2406 and the class CSNMPProtocol 2402 and uses the classesCAbsProtocol 2400 and CRecordSet 2408 as described in FIG. 23. TheSNMPaccess package 2404 implements the SNMP protocol to access thenetwork devices and to obtain information from the network devices. TheSNMPODBC package 2406 accesses and obtains information from the databaseabout vendor and model of network devices supported by the SNMP protocoland the information to be obtained from the network devices by SNMPprotocol. The CSNMPProtocol class 2402 is a class derived from theCAbsProtocol class 2400. CSNMPProtocol 2402 obtains the necessaryinformation from the network devices using the SNMP protocol.CSNMPProtocol 2402 provides the method for all the interface functionsof CAbsProtocol 2400 as described in FIG. 23. FIG. 24 also shows thefunctions of the packages SNMPaccess 2404 and SNMPODBC 2406 thatCSNMPProtocol 2402 uses. The SNMPODBC package 2406 uses the classCRecordSet 2408 to obtain information from the database.

FIG. 25 shows the package diagram for the HTTP package 2302. Thispackage is responsible for determining the vendor and model of networkdevices supported by the HTTP protocol and the information to beobtained from the network devices by HTTP protocol, and for accessingthe network devices through the HTTP protocol to obtain information fromthe network devices. The package contains the packages HTTPaccess 2504and HTTPODBC 2506 and the class CHTTPProtocol 2502 and uses the classesCAbsProtocol 2500 and CRecordSet 2508 as described in FIG. 23. TheHTTPaccess package 2504 implements the HTTP protocol to access thenetwork devices and to obtain information from the network devices. TheHTTPODBC package 2506 accesses and obtains information from the databaseabout vendor and model of network devices supported by the HTTP protocoland the information to be obtained from the network devices by HTTPprotocol. The CHTTPProtocol class 2502 is a class derived from theCAbsProtocol class 2500. CHTTPProtocol 2502 obtains the necessaryinformation from the network devices using the HTTP protocol.CHTTPProtocol 2502 provides the method for all the interface functionsof CAbsProtocol 2500 as described in FIG. 23. FIG. 25 also shows thefunctions of the packages HTTPaccess 2504 and HTTPODBC 2506 thatCHTTPProtocol 2502 uses. The HTTPODBC package 2506 uses the classCRecordSet 2508 to obtain information from the database.

FIG. 26 shows the package diagram for the FTP package 2306. This packageis responsible for determining the vendor and model of network devicessupported by the FTP protocol and the information to be obtained fromthe network devices by FTP protocol, and for accessing the networkdevices through the FTP protocol to obtain information from the networkdevices. The package contains the packages FTPaccess 2604 and FTPODBC2606 and the class CFTPProtocol 2602 and uses the classes CAbsProtocol2600 and CRecordSet 2608 as described in FIG. 23. The FTPaccess package2604 implements the FTP protocol to access the network devices and toobtain information from the network devices. The FTPODBC package 2606accesses and obtains information from the database about the vendor andthe model of network devices supported by the FTP protocol and theinformation to be obtained from the network devices by FTP protocol. TheCFTPProtocol class 2602 is a class derived from the CAbsProtocol class2600. CFTPProtocol 2602 obtains the necessary information from thenetwork devices using the FTP protocol. CFTPProtocol 2602 provides themethod for all the interface functions of CAbsProtocol 2600 as describedin FIG. 23. FIG. 26 also shows the functions of the packages FTPaccess2604 and FTPODBC 2606 that CFTPProtocol 2602 uses. The FTPODBC package2606 uses the class CRecordSet 2608 to obtain information from thedatabase.

Each of the protocol packages, HTTP 2302, SNMP 2304, and FTP 2306, asdescribed in FIGS. 23 through 26, contain a class that manages theaccess to the network device to obtain information from the device. Theclass is derived from the abstract class CAbsProtocol 2308 whichprovides for the method of implementing the protocols to accessinformation from the network device. An abstract class only provides theinterface functions but does not perform any process. The classesderived from the abstract class provide the method to perform theprocess for the interface functions. There can be many derived classesof the abstract class so that the different derived classes can performthe process of the interface function differently. For example, aninterface function of CAbsProtocol is obtainStatus( ). The derived classCSNMPProtocol 2402 will contain the function obtainStatus( ) whichprovides the method to obtain the status information of a network deviceusing SNMP while the derived class CHTTPProtocol 2502 will contain thefunction obtainStatus( ) which provides the method to obtain the statusinformation of a network device using HTTP. From the design of theHWaccess package, a new protocol can be added to the system by adding anew package that contains a derived class of CAbsProtocol that managesthe new package to access the network device using the new protocol. Theabstract class allows for the future expansion of the system.

FIGS. 27A-27D show the data structures that are used in the HWaccesspackage of FIG. 23 to maintain all the protocols to access and to obtaininformation from the network devices. In FIG. 27A, the data structure isa vector 500 of pointers to CAbsProtocol 2308. The class CHWaccess 2300will contain and use this data structure. Even though the vector 500will contain pointers to classes derived from CAbsProtocol 2308,CHWaccess 2300 will see the vector as containing pointers toCAbsProtocol 2308 and call the interface functions of CAbsProtocol 2308through the virtual function call mechanism. In actuality, CHWaccess2300 will call the interface functions of the derived classes ofCAbsProtocol 2308. For example, the pointer to the CAbsProtocol 502 inthe first entry in the vector may be a pointer to the derived classCSNMPProtocol 2402, the pointer to the CAbsProtocol 504 in the secondentry in the vector may be a pointer to the derived class CHTTPProtocol2502, and the pointer to the CAbsProtocol 506 in the third entry in thevector may be a pointer to the derived class CFTPProtocol 2602. So whenCHWaccess 2300 calls the interface functions of CAbsProtocol 2308 in thevector, it is actually calling the interface functions of CSNMPProtocol2402, CHTTPProtocol 2502, and CFTPProtocol 2602. The use of the abstractclass CAbsProtocol 2308 in the vector 500 allows any protocol to be usedto access and obtain information from the network devices. The abstractclass CAbsProtocol 2308 hides the detail of what protocol is being used.

FIG. 27B shows the data structure that is used by CSNMPProtocol tomaintain information about the vendor and model of network devices thatare being monitored by SNMP and information used to obtain statusinformation from them. The data structure is a map 510. The key to themap 510 is a string 512 representing the vendor name of the networkdevice. The value to the map 510 is another map 514. The key to the map514 is a string 516 representing the model name of the network device.The value to the map 514 is a vector 518 of pairs. The pairs contain thestructure SOIDinfoType and an integer. The structure SOIDinfoTypecontain information used to obtain a single status information from thenetwork device using SNMP. Therefore, the vector 518 of pairs containsinformation to obtain all the status information for the network devicefor a specific vendor and model. The map 510 will be initialized withinformation using the process described in FIG. 28. The map 510 showssample entries for the string 512 for the vendor and the string 516 forthe model.

FIG. 27C shows the data structure that is used by CHTTPProtocol tomaintain information about the vendor and model of network devices thatare being monitored by HTTP and the information used to obtain statusinformation from them. The data structure is a map 520. The key to themap 520 is a string 522 representing the vendor name of the networkdevice. The value to the map 520 is another map 524. The key to the map524 is a string 526 representing the model name of the network device.The value to the map 524 is a vector 528 of SWebPageInfo. The structureSWebPageInfo contains information used to obtain all the statusinformation from a web page of the network device using HTTP. Therefore,the vector 528 of SWebPageInfo contains information to obtain all thestatus information for the network device for a specific vendor andmodel from all of its web pages. The map 520 will be initialized withinformation using the process described in FIG. 28. The map 520 showssample entries for the string 522 for the vendor and the string 526 forthe model.

FIG. 27D shows the data structure that is used by CFTPProtocol tomaintain information about the vendor and the model of network devicesthat are being monitored by FTP and the information used to obtainstatus information from them. The data structure is a map 530. The keyto the map 530 is a string 532 representing the vendor name of thenetwork device. The value to the map 530 is another map 534. The key tothe map 534 is a string 536 representing the model name of the networkdevice. The value to the map 534 is a vector 538 of SDirFileStatusInfo.The structure SDirFileStatusInfo contains information used to obtain allthe status information from an FTP file of the network device using FTP.Therefore, the vector 538 of SDirFileStatusInfo contains informationused to obtain all the status information for the network device for aspecific vendor and model from all of its FTP files. The map 530 will beinitialized with information using the process described in FIG. 28. Themap 530 shows sample entries for the string 532 for the vendor and thestring 536 for the model.

FIG. 28 shows a flowchart describing the process of initializing all theprotocol objects with information about the vendor of a network devicebeing monitored by the system. A similar process is used forinitializing all the protocol objects with information about the modelof a network device being monitored by the system. For a given networkdevice being monitored, the vendor and model of the network device mayneed to be known in order to determine what information needs to beobtained from the network device. Each protocol object used to accessand obtain information from the network device may need to know thevendor and model in order to determine what information and how toobtain the information from the network device. The protocol objectsrequiring initialization are those corresponding to the classes derivedfrom CAbsProtocol 2308, which are CSNMPProtocol, CHTTPProtocol, andCFTPProtocol. Initialization of the protocol object involves addinginformation to the data structures described in FIGS. 27B, 27C, and 27Dcorresponding to the protocols. The design of the system shows thatinformation added to the data structures of FIGS. 27B, 27C, and 27Dcomes from a database but they may come from other external sources suchas a text file or a spreadsheet. The vector of pointers to CAbsProtocol2308 described in FIG. 27A is used to initialize all the protocolobjects. The process of the flowchart will step through the vectortwice. The first time it steps through the vector, the protocol objectsare used to find the vendor of the network device. If the vendor name isobtained from one of the protocol objects, all the protocol objects areinitialized with the vendor name when the vector is stepped through asecond time. In step 602, a protocol object is obtained from the vectorof pointers to CAbsProtocol. The protocol object corresponds to one ofthe protocols to access the network device (e.g. SNMP, HTTP, and FTP).In step 604, a check is done to see if there are any more protocolobjects that can be obtained from the vector. This check is done bydetermining if the end of the vector has been reached. If no moreprotocol objects can be obtained, then the system failed to obtain thevendor name of the network device. All the protocol objects failed toobtain the vendor name and the initialization of the protocol objectsfor the network device is completed in step 606. If there is a protocolobject obtained from the vector, then the protocol object is used toobtain the vendor name of the network device in step 608. In step 610, acheck is done to see if the protocol object is able to obtain the vendorname of the network device. The protocol objects obtain information fromthe database used to determine the vendor of the network device. If thevendor name cannot be obtained by the protocol object, then the processtries to obtain the vendor name using another protocol object in thevector by going back to step 602. If the vendor name can be obtainedfrom the protocol object, then the process initializes the protocolobject with the vendor name in step 612. The protocol object will beinitialized with information about how to obtain status information fromthe network device of the obtained vendor name. Information will beadded to the data structures as described in FIGS. 27B, 27C, and 27D. Instep 614, a protocol object is obtained from the vector of pointers toCAbsProtocol. In step 616, a check is done to see if there are any moreprotocol objects that can be obtained from the vector. If no moreprotocol objects can be obtained, then all the protocol objects havebeen initialized with the vendor name and the initialization of all theprotocol objects is complete in step 606. All the protocol objects haveupdated information about the vendor. If there is a protocol objectobtained from the vector, then initialize the protocol object with thevendor name in step 618. Just like in step 612, the protocol object willbe initialized with information about how to obtain status informationfrom the network device of the obtained vendor name. After initializingthe protocol object with the vendor name, the process initializesanother protocol object with the vendor name by going back to step 614.

In step 608 of FIG. 28, the protocol object obtains the vendor name ofthe network device. The SNMP, HTTP, and FTP protocol objects can accessthe network device to obtain the vendor name. Information about wherethe vendor name can be found is obtained from the database. Along withinformation about the vendor of the network device being supported by aprotocol, the database provides the information to locate the vendorname of a network device. For SNMP, information about the enterpriseobject identifier associated with a vendor name and the objectidentifier used to locate the enterprise object identifier within theMIB of a network device are used by the SNMP protocol object to obtainthe vendor name. For HTTP, information about the web pages and thelocation within the web pages are used by the HTTP protocol object toobtain the vendor name. For FTP, information about the FTP files andlocation within the FTP files are used by the FTP protocol object toobtain the vendor name.

FIGS. 29A-29D show the different data structures used to obtain thestatus information of a network device of a specific vendor and modelfor the different protocols. Different protocols may be used to obtainthe same status information. However, the status information obtained byone protocol may provide more information than another so that thestatus information obtained from the protocol that provides moreinformation should be used. For example, the toner level of a printercartridge can be obtained from a network printer using SNMP and HTTP.The status information for the toner level obtained by SNMP may be“FULL”, “OK”, or “EMPTY” while the same status information obtained byHTTP may be the percentage of toner remaining. In this example, thestatus information obtained using HTTP is more informative so that thestatus information obtained by HTTP should be used. The data structuresof FIGS. 29A through 29D make sure that the most informative statusinformation is obtained. FIG. 29A shows the data structure used toobtain the status information for a network device of a specific vendorand model using the SNMP protocol. The data structure is a vector 700 ofpairs (e.g. 702 and 704) where the pairs consist of the structureSOIDinfoType 706 and an integer. The structure SOIDinfoType 706 containsinformation used to obtain a specific status information from thenetwork device using SNMP. The structure of SOIDinfoType 706 is shown inFIG. 29A. The integer in the pair determines the weight or priority ofthe status information. The larger the value for the integer, the morelikely the status information obtained will be kept because it is moreinformative. The lower the value for the integer, the more likely thatthe same status information obtained from other protocols will be kept.CSNMPProtocol 2402 uses the vector 700 to determine what statusinformation to obtain from the network device. The information placedinto the vector 700 is obtained from the data structure in FIG. 27B fora specific vendor and model.

FIG. 29B shows the data structure used to obtain the status informationfor a network device of a specific vendor and model using the HTTPprotocol. The data structure is a vector 708 of pairs (e.g. 710 and 712)where the pairs consist of the structure SKeyValueInfo 714 and aninteger. The structure SKeyValueInfo 714 contains information used toobtain a specific status information from a web page of a network deviceusing HTTP. The structure of SKeyValueInfo 714 is shown in FIG. 29B. Theinteger in the pair determines the weight or priority of the statusinformation. CHTTPProtocol 2502 uses the vector 708 to determine whatstatus information to obtain from the network device. The informationplaced into the vector 708 is obtained from the data structure in FIG.27C for a specific vendor and model.

FIG. 29C shows the data structure used to obtain the status informationfor a network device of a specific vendor and model using the FTPprotocol. The data structure is a vector 716 of pairs (e.g. 718 and 720)where the pairs consist of the structure SKeyInfoType 722 and aninteger. The structure SKeyInfoType 722 contains information used toobtain a specific status information from an FTP file of a networkdevice using FTP. The structure of SKeyInfoType 722 is shown in FIG.29C. The integer in the pair determines the weight or priority of thestatus information. CFTPProtocol 2602 uses the vector 716 to determinewhat status information to obtain from the network device. Theinformation placed into the vector 716 is obtained from the datastructure in FIG. 27D for a specific vendor and model.

FIG. 29D shows the data structure used to maintain the statusinformation obtained through the various protocols. It does not maintaininformation about which protocol was used to obtain the statusinformation. The data structure is a map 724. The key 726 to the map 724is an infoType. infoType is a number representing a type of information.The value 728 to the map 724 is a pair. The pair consists of a stringand an integer. The string in the pair is the status informationobtained from the network device that corresponds to the infoType. Theinteger in the pair is the weight or priority of the status informationas obtained from a protocol. As an example, for the infoType of 700 thatmay represent the level of black toner in the printer cartridge, thepair may contain the string “75%” and integer 10000. The string “75%”indicates that 75% of the toner remains in the cartridge and the integer10000 is the weight or priority of the status information. CSNMPProtocol2402, CHTTPProtocol 2502, and CFTPProtocol 2602 adds status informationthat it obtains from the network devices to the map 724.

FIG. 30 shows an example of how the data structures of FIGS. 27D, 29C,and 29D are used to obtain status information from a network deviceusing the FTP protocol. The map 800 containing sample data correspondsto the data structure as described in FIG. 27D. The sample data in themap 800 provides information to access status information for thenetwork device for the vendor Ricoh and the model Aficio 120 using FTP.Each of the structures in the vector, SDirFileStatusInfo1,SDirFileStatusInfo2, and SDirFileStatusInfo3, provides information toaccess status information from an FTP file in the network device.SDirFileStatusInfo1 802 contains information to access statusinformation from the network device from the FTP file status.txt in thedirectory/pub. Five status information values can be obtained from theFTP file using the vector of pairs of SKeyInfoType and integer. Each ofthe SKeyInfoType in the vector pairs corresponds to different statusinformation corresponding to the infoType as shown in FIG. 30. The map804 contains sample data corresponding to the data structure asdescribed in FIG. 29D. The map 804 contains status information obtainedpreviously by other protocols. The map 804 contains three statusinformation corresponding to the infoType 600, 610, and 700. The statusinformation for infoType 600 is “Low Paper” with the weight of 500. Thestatus information for infoType 610 is “24321” with the weight of 10000.

The status information for infoType 70 is “OK” with the weight of 2500.To determine what status information will be obtained using the FTPprotocol, a vector 806 is created to contain the status information tobe obtained. The information to be added to the vector 806 is determinedby the information in the map 800 (more specifically, the vector ofpairs in the structure SDirFileStatusInfo1 802) and the statusinformation in the map 804. If the status information to be obtainedfrom the map 800 has not been already obtained in the map 804, then theprocess adds the information needed to obtain the status information inthe vector 806. If the status information to be obtained from the map800 has already been obtained in the map 804, then check if the statusinformation to be obtained by the FTP protocol is more informative thanthe status information in the map 804 by comparing the weight. Add tothe vector 806 information to obtain the status information only if theweight of the status information obtained by FTP is greater than weightof the status information already in the map 804. The status informationto be obtained by FTP corresponding to SDirFileStatusInfo1 802 are theinfoType 600, 610, 620, 700, and 710. The infoType 620 and 710 are notin the status information map 804 so that the status information needsto be obtained using FTP. Therefore the information used to obtain thestatus information corresponding to 620 (SKeyInfoType3) and 710(SKeyInfoType5) are added to the vector 806. The infoType 600 and 700are in the status information map 804. The weight of the statusinformation obtained by FTP for these infoTypes as shown in 802 isgreater than their weight in the status information map 804. So thestatus information obtained for these two infoTypes by FTP is moreinformative than the status information that exists in the map 804.Therefore, information to obtain the status information for infoType 600(SKeyInfoType1) and 700 (SKeyInfoType4) are added to the vector 806. TheinfoType 610 is in the status information map 804. The weight of thestatus information obtained by FTP for this infoType as shown in 802 isless than its weight in the status information map 804. So the statusinformation obtained for this infoType by FTP is less informative thanthe status information that exists in the map 804. Therefore,information to obtain the status information for infoType 610(SKeyInfoType2) is not added to the vector 806. This vector 806 will beused by the FTP protocol to obtain the status information for infoType600, 620, 700, and 710. Two status information values will be added tothe status information map 804 and two status information values will beoverwritten in the status information map 804 if FTP is successful inobtaining the status information. FIG. 30 shows an example of how thedata structures are used to obtain the status information for the FTPprotocol. A similar process in using the data structures of FIGS. 27B,27C, 29A, and 29B is used to obtain the status information for SNMP andHTTP.

FIG. 31A is a flowchart describing the method of obtaining statusinformation. All protocols use the same method described herein. Beforea protocol object is used to obtain a specific status information, theprotocol object checks to see if the status information has already beenobtained by another protocol object. If the status information hasalready been obtained, it must check to see if the status information itwill obtain is more informative than what has already been obtain fromanother protocol object. The most informative status information will bekept. The method of the flowchart makes sure that the most informativestatus information is obtained. The data structures 510, 520, and 530 ofFIGS. 27B, 27C, and 27D are used by its corresponding protocol todetermine which status information to obtain. In step 3102, a vector ofpairs containing information used to obtain status information from thenetwork device is created with no entries. The vector of pairscorrespond to one of the data structures 700, 708, or 716 of FIGS. 29Athrough 29C depending on the protocol being used. In step 3104,information is obtained that is used to obtain one status informationfrom the network device of a given vendor and model. All protocolobjects maintain information about what status information to obtain forevery vendor and model it supports. All protocol objects are initializedwith this information by the initialization process described in FIG.28. The information that is used to obtain one status information willbe stored in one of the structures SOIDinfoType 706, SKeyValueInfo 714,or SKeyInfoType 722 of FIGS. 29A, 29B, and 29C depending upon theprotocol used. In step 3106, a check is made to determine if there areany more information that is used to obtain status information from thenetwork device. If there is no more information, then the vector ofpairs created in step 3102 contains all the information needed to obtainall the status information from the network device for the protocol. Instep 3108, the protocol object will use the vector of pairs to obtainthe status information from the network device and the statusinformation will be placed into the status information map 724 describedin FIG. 29D. The obtaining of status information by a protocol iscompleted in step 3110. If there is more information that is used toobtain status information from the network device, then in step 3112check to determine if the status information has already been obtained.This is done by looking at the map that contains the status informationas described in FIG. 29D to see if the status information already existsin the map. If the status information does not exist in the map, thenadd the information used to obtain the status information to the vectorof pairs in step 3114. After adding the information to the vector ofpairs, go back to step 3104 to obtain more information used to obtainstatus information. If the status information has already been obtained,then compare the weight of the status information that has already beenobtained with the weight or priority of the status information that canbe obtained through the protocol in step 3116. If the weight or priorityof the status information in the map for the status information of thenetwork device is greater than the weight or priority of the statusinformation to be obtained by the protocol, then do not add theinformation used to obtain the status information to the vector ofpairs. Instead, go back to step 3104 to obtain more information used toobtain status information. If the weight or priority of the statusinformation in the map is not greater than the weight or priority of thestatus information to be obtained by the protocol, then add theinformation used to obtain the status information to the vector of pairsin step 3114. After adding the information to the vector of pairs, goback to step 3104 to obtain more information used to obtain statusinformation.

FIG. 31B shows a flowchart describing the process of obtaining statusinformation about the network devices using the all the protocols. Afterthe protocol objects have been initialized with information about thevendor and model of network devices it supports as described in FIG. 28,the protocol objects can be used to obtain status information from thenetwork devices. The protocol objects contain information about how toobtain status information for given vendors and models using the datastructures as described in FIGS. 27B, 27C, and 27D. The vector ofpointers to CAbsProtocol 2308 described in FIG. 27A is used to obtainthe status information for all the protocol objects. The process of theflowchart will step through the vector once. In step 3122, a protocolobject is obtained from the vector of pointers to CAbsProtocol. Theprotocol object corresponds to one of the network protocols to accessthe network device (e.g. SNMP, HTTP, and FTP). In step 3124, a check isdone to see if there are any more protocol objects that can be obtainedfrom the vector. This check is done by determining if the end of thevector has been reached. If no more protocol objects can be obtained,then the system is done in obtaining the status information from thenetwork device using all the protocol objects in step 3126. If there isa protocol object obtained from the vector, then use the protocol objectto obtain the status information of the network device in step 3128.After obtaining the status information using the protocol object, obtainmore status information using another protocol object by going back tostep 3122.

FIG. 32A shows the data structure used to maintain information about thevendors and models of network devices supported by a given protocol,while FIG. 32B shows an example of information used in the datastructure. The organization of information in the database about thesupported vendors and models and how to obtain the status informationfrom them varies among protocols. Therefore obtaining the vendors andmodels supported from the database for different protocols will differfrom one another. To simplify the access of vendors and modelssupported, a map structure can be used to store and access thisinformation for all protocols. FIG. 32A shows the Vendor Model SupportMap 3200. The key 3202 to the map 3200 is a string which containsinformation about the vendor and model supported by a protocol. Thevalue 3204 to the map 3200 is an integer that can be used to representinformation related to the vendor and model such as a vendor modelidentification number. The reason a map structure was chosen to containinformation about the vendors and models supported by a protocol wasbecause a map structure has a lookup mechanism to easily find a key in amap. Thus, it is easy to determine if a vendor and model is stored inthe map. Though the discussion of FIG. 32A indicated information aboutthe vendor and model for different protocols come from the database, theinformation can come from any external source such as a text file or aspreadsheet.

FIG. 32B shows a Vendor Model Support Map 3206 with sample entries inthe map. The key 3208 to the map 3206 is a string containing the vendorname, a separator “%%%%%”, and the model name. For example, for thevendor “Xerox” and model “NC60”, the string for the key 3208 to the map3206 is “Xerox%%%%%NC60”. Though the separator “%%%%%” was used in theexample, any separator can be used that would not be considered as partof the vendor name or model name such as “@@@@@”. The reason a separatoris used is to distinguish the vendor from the model so that the vendorand model can be easily obtained from the string. The value 3210 to themap 3206 is the integer 1. The value 3210 to the map 3206 can be anyinteger. Each protocol will maintain a Vendor Model Support Map 3200.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart describing the method of adding vendors andmodels supported to the Vendor Model Support Map 3200 of FIG. 32A tocontain all the vendors and models supported by a protocol. In step3302, the vendor and model is obtained from the database. How the vendorand model are obtained from the database will differ among theprotocols. This depends upon the tables in the database which containthe vendors and models supported. In step 3304, a check is made todetermine if there are more vendor and model information to obtain fromthe database. If there are no more to obtain, then the method ofpopulating the Vendor Model Support Map 3200 with vendors and modelssupported is completed in step 3306. The Vendor Model Support Map 3200contains all the vendors and models supported by a protocol. No moreaccess to the database is required to obtain the supported vendor andmodel information. If there is a vendor and model obtained from thedatabase, then create a string to be used as a key for the Vendor ModelSupport Map 3200 in step 3308. The string consists of the vendor name, aseparator, and the model name. As described previously, the separatorcan be any string that would not be considered as part of the vendorname or model name. In step 3310, a check is made to determine if thestring made up of the vendor name, separator, and model name alreadyexists in the Vendor Model Support Map 3200. If the string alreadyexists in the map 3200, then obtain another vendor and model from thedatabase in step 3302. If the string does not exist in the map 3200,then add the string and an integer to the map 3200. After the string hasbeen added to the map 3200, then obtain another vendor and model fromthe database in step 3302.

FIG. 34 is a flowchart describing the method of obtaining the vendor andmodel supported by a protocol from the Vendor Model Support Map 3200 ofFIG. 32A. In step 3402, a string for the key is obtained from the VendorModel Support Map 3200. In step 3404, a check is made to determine ifthere are any more keys to obtain from the map 3200. If there are nomore keys, then all the vendors and models supported by a protocol havebeen obtained and obtaining the vendor and model is complete in step3406. If a string for the key was obtained from the map 3200, thenobtain the substring before the separator to obtain the vendor name instep 3408. In step 3410, obtain the substring after the separator toobtain the model name. Then in step 3406, obtaining the vendor and modelis complete. By going through all the entries in the map 3200, all thevendors and models supported by a protocol can be obtained.

FIG. 35 shows the package diagram of the Device Package. The package isresponsible for creating the software objects representing the networkdevices. The Device Package 1300 consists of two classes, CDeviceFactory1302 and CDevice 1304. The class CDeviceFactory 1302 is responsible forcreating and initializing the software object for a network device.Initializing the software object includes determining the vendor, model,and unique identifier of the network device and setting the protocolsthat can be used to access the network devices. If the network devicecannot be accessed, then a software object for the network device is notcreated. The class CDevice 1304 will represent the software object for anetwork device. CDevice 1304 will maintain information about the networkdevice and obtain status information about the network device. CDevice1304 will use the HWaccess package 1306, which is described in FIG. 23,to access the network device through various protocols to obtaininformation from the device.

FIG. 36A shows a data structure used by the software objectsrepresenting the network devices, CDevice 1304 as described in FIG. 35,to determine which protocols are used to access the network device.CDevice 1304 contains the Protocol Parameter Map 1400. The key 1402 tothe map 1400 is a string representing the protocol (e.g. SNMP, HTTP,FTP). The value 1404 to the map 1400 is a vector of the structureSParameter. The structure SParameter 1406 contains information used toaccess the network device for a given protocol. The SParameter 1406contains information that is characteristic of the network device ratherthan the characteristic of the vendor and model of the device. Forexample, the information may be the community name in order to accessthe network device by SNMP or the information may be the user name andpassword in order to access the network device by FTP. These are commoninformation values used to access any network device by SNMP or FTP.Information from the database obtained through DeviceODBC package isadded to the map so that the network device can be accessed through thevarious protocols. Entries in the map are removed for a protocol if theprotocol cannot access the network device using the protocol and if thevendor and model is not supported by the protocol. Some protocols willaccess the network device even though the vendor and model may not besupported by the protocol. One such protocol is SNMP.

FIG. 36B shows sample data in the Protocol Parameter Map 1400 of FIG.36A for a network device. The network device uses two protocols toobtain status information—SNMP and FTP. Therefore, the map 1410 for thenetwork device contains two entries for the key “SNMP” and “FTP”. Toaccess the network device using SNMP, the community name is needed. Thevector of SParameter for SNMP will contain information about thecommunity name. The parameter name of COMMUNITY and a parameter value of“private” is used for one SParameter to allow access to the networkdevice. To access the network device using FTP, the user name andpassword are needed. The vector of SParameter for FTP will containinformation about the user name and password. The parameter name ofUSERNAME with a parameter value of “abc” is used for one SParameter andthe parameter name of PASSWORD with a parameter value of “xyz” is usedfor another SParameter to allow access to the network device.

FIG. 37 shows a flowchart describing how the Protocol Parameter Map 1400of FIG. 36A is updated to determine which protocols are used to obtainthe status information from a network device. The steps in FIG. 37 areperformed to obtain the vendor name and the model name of a networkdevice for a protocol. In step 3702, a check is made to determine if thenetwork device can be accessed using a protocol. The network device isaccessed through the protocol using the information in the map 1400. Ifthe network device cannot be accessed through the protocol, the protocolis removed from the protocol parameter map 1400 in step 3704 and theupdating of the map 1400 is completed in step 3714. If the networkdevice can be accessed through the protocol, then in step 3706 a checkis made to determine if the vendor of the network device can be obtainedusing the protocol. If the vendor cannot be obtained, then in step 3707a check is made if GENERIC vendor is supported by the protocol. Supportfor GENERIC vendor for a protocol means that a protocol can obtainstatus information that is common to all devices (common statusinformation) even if it cannot obtain or does not support the vendor ofthe devices. If GENERIC vendor is not supported by the protocol, thenthe protocol is removed from the protocol parameter map 1400 in step3704 and the updating of the map 1400 is completed in step 3714. IfGENERIC vendor is supported by the protocol, then the protocol remainsin the protocol parameter map 1400 and the updating of the map iscompleted in step 3714. If the vendor can be obtained in step 3706, thenin step 3708 a check is made to determine if the vendor of the networkdevice is supported by the protocol. If the vendor is not supported bythe protocol, then in step 3707 a check is made if GENERIC vendor issupported by the protocol. The sequence of steps following step 3707 isdiscussed above.

If the vendor is supported by the protocol, then in step 3710 a check ismade to determine if the model of the network device can be obtainedusing the protocol. If the model cannot be obtained, then in step 3711 acheck is made if GENERIC model is supported by the protocol. Support forGENERIC model for a protocol means that a protocol can obtain statusinformation that is common to all devices of a vendor (vendor specificstatus information) even if it cannot obtain or does not support themodel of the devices. If GENERIC model is not supported by the protocol,then the protocol is removed from the protocol parameter map 1400 instep 3704 and the updating of the map 1400 is completed in step 3714. IfGENERIC model is supported by the protocol, then the protocol remains inthe protocol parameter map 1400 and the updating of the map is completedin step 3714. If the model can be obtained in step 3710, then in step3712 a check is made to determine if the model of the network device issupported by the protocol. If the model is not supported by theprotocol, then in step 3711 a check is made if GENERIC model issupported by the protocol. The sequence of steps following 3711 isdiscussed above. If the model is supported by the protocol, then theprotocol can be used to obtain status information for the network deviceand the updating of the protocol parameter map 1400 is completed in step3714. If the vendor and model are not obtained or not supported, thenthe protocol is removed from the protocol parameter map 1400 and theprotocol is not used to obtain status information. There are variationsto the process shown in FIG. 37 depending on the protocol. Whereas HTTPand FTP follow the description in the flowchart, SNMP will be supportedand used to obtain the status information even though the vendor issupported but the model and generic model are not supported.

As discussed above, status information can be obtained by SNMP from thenetwork device even if the vendor and model are not obtained orsupported. As long as the network device supports SNMP and can beaccessed by SNMP, information can be obtained from the ManagementInformation Base (MIB) of the network device. In step 3702, if thenetwork device cannot be accessed through SNMP, then the SNMP protocolmay be removed from the protocol parameter map 1400 in step 3704.However, if the network device can be accessed through SNMP, then theSNMP protocol remains in the protocol parameter map 1400 whether or notthe vendor or model is obtained and supported. Network devices thatsupport SNMP provide a MIB so that the remote system can always obtaininformation from the devices. However, the type and number ofinformation that can be obtained from the network device depends upon ifthe vendor and model are obtained and supported. More information can beobtained from the network device by SNMP is the vendor and model areobtained and known. If the vendor and model cannot be obtained, SNMP isstill able to obtain information that all devices can provide, such asthe system description or the time the system has been running. SNMP canbe used to obtain information from the network device under the threeconditions: (1) vendor and model are supported, (2) vendor supported butmodel not supported, and (3) vendor and model are not supported. HTTPand FTP do not have the characteristics as SNMP. Where SNMP has astandard MIB that all network devices can follow so that information canbe obtained, web pages and FTP files will vary among network devices ofdifferent vendors and models. There is no standard for web pages and FTPfiles which network devices follow to obtain information.

Although the present invention is shown to include a few devices, whichrequire monitoring, connected to a network, it will be appreciated thatany number of devices may be connected to the network without deviatingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention. Also, the present inventionmay also be applied in a home environment wherein various devices needto be monitored and controlled.

The present invention enables the monitoring of the various devices in amulti-vendor environment and further facilitates retrieving anddisplaying detailed information in a user-comprehensible oruser-friendly manner even without having specific private managementinformation base (MIB) information.

The controller of the present invention may be conveniently implementedusing a conventional general purpose digital computer or amicroprocessor programmed according to the teachings of the presentspecification, as will be apparent to those skilled in the computer art.Appropriate software coding can readily be prepared by skilledprogrammers based on the teachings of the present disclosure, as will beapparent to those skilled in the software art. The invention may also beimplemented by the preparation of application specific integratedcircuits or by interconnecting an appropriate network of conventionalcomponent circuits, as will be readily apparent to those skilled in theart.

The present invention includes a computer program product residing on astorage medium including instructions that can be used to program acomputer to perform a process of the invention. The storage medium caninclude, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks,optical discs, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, ROMS, RAMs, EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable forstoring electronic instructions.

Obviously, numerous modifications and variations of the presentinvention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is thereforeto be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, theinvention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically describedherein.

1. A method of managing information related to at least one monitoreddevice communicatively coupled to a network, comprising: selecting acommunication protocol among a plurality of communication protocols usedto extract status information from the at least one monitored device;retrieving, from a first memory, a protocol object associated with theselected communication protocol, wherein the protocol object includesvendor and model information of the at least one monitored device;obtaining, from the protocol object, a vendor name of a monitored deviceof the at least one monitored device supported by the selectedcommunication protocol; obtaining, from the protocol object, a modelname corresponding to the obtained vendor name; creating a descriptivestring using the obtained vendor name and the obtained model name;determining if the descriptive string is present in a second memory; andif the determining step determines that the descriptive string is notpresent in the second memory, storing the descriptive string in thesecond memory in association with the protocol object.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the creating step comprises: creating the descriptivestring using the vendor name, the corresponding model name, and aseparator string.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:repeating the selecting, retrieving, obtaining the vendor name,obtaining the model name, creating, determining, and storing steps foreach protocol of the plurality of communication protocols.
 4. The methodof claim 1, wherein the storing step comprises: storing the descriptivestring in a vendor-model support map in the second memory, thevendor-model support map having at least one entry, wherein each entryincludes the descriptive string and a vendor-model value.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein the selecting step comprises: selecting thecommunication protocol among SNMP, HTTP, and FTP.
 6. A method ofmanaging information necessary to extract status information from amonitored device communicatively coupled to a network, comprising:selecting a communication protocol among a plurality of communicationprotocols used to extract the status information from the monitoreddevice; retrieving a descriptive string from a first memory, thedescriptive string including a vendor name and a corresponding modelname supported by the selected communication protocol; extracting thevendor name and the corresponding model name from the descriptivestring; determining if the extracted vendor name and the extracted modelname match a vendor name and a model name, respectively, of themonitored device; and if the determining step determines that theextracted vendor name and the extracted model name match the vendor nameand the model name, respectively, of the monitored device, accessing thedevice to obtain the status information using the selected communicationprotocol.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the retrieving stepcomprises: retrieving the descriptive string comprising the vendor name,the corresponding model name, and a separator string, the separatorstring being located between the vendor name and the corresponding modelname.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the retrieving step comprises:retrieving a vendor-model map from the first memory, the vendor-modelmap comprising at least one descriptive string; and obtaining thedescriptive string from the vendor-model map.
 9. The method of claim 6,wherein the selecting step comprises: selecting the communicationprotocol among SNMP, HTTP, and FTP.
 10. A system for managinginformation related to at least one monitored device communicativelycoupled to a network, comprising: means for selecting a communicationprotocol among a plurality of communication protocols used to extractstatus information from the at least one monitored device; means forretrieving, from a first memory, a protocol object associated with theselected communication protocol, wherein the protocol object includesvendor and model information of the at least one monitored device; meansfor obtaining, from the protocol object, a vendor name of a monitoreddevice of the at least one monitored device supported by the selectedcommunication protocol; means for obtaining, from the protocol object, amodel name corresponding to the obtained vendor name; means for creatinga descriptive string using the obtained vendor name and the obtainedmodel name; means for determining if the descriptive string is presentin a second memory; and means for storing the descriptive string in thesecond memory in association with the protocol object, when the meansfor determining determines that the descriptive string is not present inthe second memory.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the means forcreating comprises: means for creating the descriptive string using thevendor name, the corresponding model name, and a separator string. 12.The system of claim 10, wherein the means for storing comprises: meansfor storing the descriptive string in a vendor-model support map in thesecond memory, the vendor-model support map having at least one entry,wherein each entry includes the descriptive string and a vendor-modelvalue.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the means for selectingcomprises: means for selecting the communication protocol among SNMP,HTTP, and FTP.
 14. A system for managing information necessary toextract status information from a monitored device communicativelycoupled to a network, comprising: means for selecting a communicationprotocol among a plurality of communication protocols used to extractthe status information from the monitored device; means for retrieving adescriptive string from a first memory, the descriptive string includinga vendor name and a corresponding model name supported by the selectedcommunication protocol; means for extracting the vendor name and thecorresponding model name from the descriptive string; means fordetermining if the extracted vendor name and the extracted model namematch a vendor name and a model name, respectively, of the monitoreddevice; and means for accessing the device to obtain the statusinformation using the selected communication protocol, when the meansfor determining determines that the extracted vendor name and theextracted model name match the vendor name and the model name,respectively, of the monitored device.
 15. The system of claim 14,wherein the means for retrieving comprises: means for retrieving thedescriptive string comprising the vendor name, the corresponding modelname, and a separator string, the separator string being located betweenthe vendor name and the corresponding model name.
 16. The system ofclaim 14, wherein the means for retrieving comprises: means forretrieving a vendor-model map from the first memory, the vendor-modelmap comprising at least one descriptive string; and means for obtainingthe descriptive string from the vendor-model map.
 17. The system ofclaim 14, wherein the means for selecting comprises: means for selectingthe communication protocol among SNMP, HTTP, and FTP.
 18. A computerprogram product having a computer usable medium for managing informationrelated to at least one monitored device communicatively coupled to anetwork, comprising: instructions for selecting a communication protocolamong a plurality of communication protocols used to extract statusinformation from the at least one monitored device; instructions forretrieving, from a first memory, a protocol object associated with theselected communication protocol, wherein the protocol object includesvendor and model information of the at least one monitored device;instructions for obtaining, from the protocol object, a vendor name of amonitored device of the at least one monitored device supported by theselected communication protocol; instructions for obtaining, from theprotocol object, a model name corresponding to the obtained vendor name;instructions for creating a descriptive string using the obtained vendorname and the obtained model name; instructions for determining if thedescriptive string is present in a second memory; and instructions forstoring the descriptive string in the second memory in association withthe protocol object, when the instructions for determining determinethat the descriptive string is not present in the second memory,
 19. Thecomputer program product of claim 18, wherein the instructions forcreating comprise: instructions for creating the descriptive stringusing the vendor name, the corresponding model name, and a separatorstring.
 20. The computer program product of claim 18, furthercomprising: instructions for repeating the instructions for selecting,instructions for retrieving, instructions for obtaining the vendor name,instructions for obtaining the model name, instructions for creating,instructions for determining, and instructions for storing for eachprotocol of the plurality of communication protocols.
 21. The computerprogram product of claim 18, wherein the instructions for storingcomprise: instructions for storing the descriptive string in avendor-model support map in the second memory, the vendor-model supportmap having at least one entry, wherein each entry includes thedescriptive string and a vendor-model value.
 22. The computer programproduct of claim 18, wherein the instructions for selecting comprise:instructions for selecting the communication protocol among SNMP, HTTP,and FTP.
 23. A computer program product having a computer usable mediumfor managing information necessary to extract status information from amonitored device communicatively coupled to a network, comprising:instructions for selecting a communication protocol among a plurality ofcommunication protocols used to extract the status information from themonitored device; instructions for retrieving a descriptive string froma first memory, the descriptive string including a vendor name and acorresponding model name supported by the selected communicationprotocol; instructions for extracting the vendor name and thecorresponding model name from the descriptive string; instructions fordetermining if the extracted vendor name and the extracted model namematch a vendor name and a model name, respectively, of the monitoreddevice; and instructions for accessing the device to obtain the statusinformation using the selected communication protocol, when theinstructions for determining determine that the extracted vendor nameand the extracted model name match the vendor name and the model name,respectively, of the monitored device.
 24. The computer program productof claim 23, wherein the instructions for retrieving comprise:instructions for retrieving the descriptive string comprising the vendorname, the corresponding model name, and a separator string, theseparator string being located between the vendor name and thecorresponding model name.
 25. The computer program product of claim 23,wherein the instructions for retrieving comprises: instructions forretrieving a vendor-model map from the first memory, the vendor-modelmap comprising at least one descriptive string; and instructions forobtaining the descriptive string from the vendor-model map.
 26. Thecomputer program product of claim 23, wherein the instructions forselecting comprise: instructions for selecting the communicationprotocol among SNMP, HTTP, and FTP.